![Managing Website and Online Store 115
Known Problems Related to Store
This subsection describes problems that may occur in connection with PHP store
deployment and use and advises how these problems can be solved.
The subsection is entirely based on our customers reports. And the idea was to make a
useful information available for a wider circle of customers.
The problems we describe here are connected not with the store itself, but with some
peculiarities of store environment, for example PHP version used at a store server or
Apache misconfiguration.
In course of time, this subsection may be amended with new solutions in case new
problems will be reported by our customers.
Please remember that remote store installation requires a specific configuration
described in details in the Parallels Business Automation - Standard SDK, chapter
Customizing Parallels Business Automation - Standard > PHP Based Store
Customization > Manual Store Installation on Remote Server.
Problem
For PHP version 4.4.4.compiled with the—enable-wddx option and running on Red
Hat Enterprise Linux AS release 3 (Taroon Update 5), kernel version 2.6.9-
023stab044.4-enterprise, Apache 2.0.46 , the remote Store sometimes fails to save a
PHP session. This problem shows itself in the following way:
Remote store displays the message:
Our store is temporarily closed.
We apologize for the inconvenience
In the Apache error log on a remote server the following errors are written:
[Wed Apr 25 00:22:20 2007] [error] [client 84.237.120.254] API Session has been
opened, sid =
[Wed Apr 25 00:22:20 2007] [error] [client 84.237.120.254] FaultCode => <>
[Wed Apr 25 00:22:20 2007] [error] [client 84.237.120.254] FaultString =>
[Wed Apr 25 00:22:20 2007] [error] [client 84.237.120.254] No callback found!
If Apache frontend and backend are configured correctly for the remote store at the
Parallels Business Automation - Standard Management Node, in accordance with SDK
recommendations, the problem may be connected with the PHP Session Serializer. By
default, the WDDX Session Serializer is used for all PHP versions below 5.x.x.
Solution
The problem solution depends on the Parallels Business Automation - Standard
version.](https://image.slidesharecdn.com/parallels-business-automation-standard-provider-guide564/85/Parallels-Business-Automation-Standard-Provider-Guide-115-320.jpg)
![116 Managing Website and Online Store
If the Parallels Business Automation - Standard version you use is below 3.3. Service
Pack 2, then do the following:
1 Open for editing the {STORE_ROOT}/includes/hspc.php file.
2 Find the strings:
if(ereg( “4.[0-9].[0-9].*”, phpversion())) {
ini_set(„session.serialize_handler‟, „wddx‟);
}
3 Comment the string:
ini_set(„session.serialize_handler‟, „wddx‟);
4 Save the file.
If you use the 3.3. Service Pack 2 or later, then you can explicitly define the session
handler in the store configuration file
{STORE_ROOT}/includes/settings.ini:
1 Open the settings.ini file for editing.
2 Find the SESSION_SERIALIZE_HANDLER parameter. It defines the session
handler. Two values are possible, either php or wddx.
3 If you use PHP 4.x.x then change the handler from one value into another. If php is
set, change it into wddx, and conversely. This should help. For PHP 5.x.x php
should be ok.
If the offered solutions do not work, please contact support.](https://image.slidesharecdn.com/parallels-business-automation-standard-provider-guide564/85/Parallels-Business-Automation-Standard-Provider-Guide-116-320.jpg)
![270 Managing Payables in Reseller Control Center
Log Level Settings
There are several possible logging levels that you can choose to be collected in the
/var/log/hspc/hspc.log file.on the Management Node.
The „lowest‟ logging level, collects only messages about serious system problems,
whereas the „highest‟ level collects all logging related messages. When you specify a
particular logging level, the messages for that level and all the levels below it are
collected.
To set the log level:
1 Click the Edit button on the Log Settings screen.
2 Select the logging level from the Log Level drop-down menu:
DEBUG - the lowest logging rank and is intended to turn on all logging.
INFO - informational messages that highlight the progress of the application at
coarse-grained level.
WARN - messages about potentially harmful situations.
ERROR - error events that might still allow the application to continue running.
FATAL - very severe error events that will presumably lead the application to
abort.
3 You can adjust the log messages format. To this effect, enter the format pattern
(http://search.cpan.org/~mschilli/Log-Log4perl-
1.04/lib/Log/Log4perl/Layout/PatternLayout.pm) into the Log Pattern field.
Note: The %X{key} placeholder can be used in pattern only one time. If you are not
sure about a new log pattern, then leave the default: [%d] [%p] [%P] [%M] %m
%X{last_report}%n](https://image.slidesharecdn.com/parallels-business-automation-standard-provider-guide564/85/Parallels-Business-Automation-Standard-Provider-Guide-270-320.jpg)
Parallels Business Automation - Standard Provider Guide
- 2. Legal and Copyright Notice ISBN: N/A Parallels th 660 SW 39 Street Suite 205 Renton, Washington 98057 USA Phone: +1 (425) 282 6400 Fax: +1 (425) 282 6444 © Copyright 2009, Parallels, Inc. All rights reserved Distribution of this work or derivative of this work in any form is prohibited unless prior written permission is obtained from the copyright holder. Product and service names mentioned herein are the trademarks of their respective owners.
- 3. Contents Preface 8 Typographical Conventions ........................................................................................................... 8 Feedback ....................................................................................................................................... 9 About This Guide 10 Audience ...................................................................................................................................... 11 Meet the Parallels Business Automation - Standard 12 Parallels Business Automation - Standard Advantages .............................................................. 13 Parallels Business Automation - Standard Hardware Requirements .......................................... 16 Parallels Business Automation - Standard Users ........................................................................ 18 Browsers Compatible with Parallels Business Automation - Standard ....................................... 19 Connecting to Parallels Business Automation - Standard Browser-Based Tools ....................... 20 Parallels Business Automation - Standard Interface Features .................................................... 21 Navigation.......................................................................................................................... 21 Main Screen ...................................................................................................................... 21 Adding a Comment to the Parallels Business Automation - Standard Object .................. 22 General Configuration of Parallels Business Automation - Standard 23 Checking Provider Account Contacts .......................................................................................... 24 Setting Up Access Permissions for Parallels Business Automation - Standard Users ............... 24 Setting Up Messenger and S/MIME Signing for E-mail............................................................... 26 Selecting Regional Settings ......................................................................................................... 26 Customizing the Onscreen Help in Control Panel ....................................................................... 28 Securing the Parallels Business Automation - Standard Tools Using SSL ................................. 28 Getting the SSL Certificate ................................................................................................ 30 Enabling SSL for Parallels Business Automation - Standard Tools .................................. 30 Managing Parallels Business Automation - Standard Services and Data Center 31 Virtuozzo Nodes Specific Settings ............................................................................................... 33 Sitebuilder Management .............................................................................................................. 33 Sitebuilder Services Provisioning ...................................................................................... 35 Connecting Sitebuilder Nodes ........................................................................................... 37 Setting Up Sitebuilder ........................................................................................................ 40 Managing Sitebuilder Nodes ............................................................................................. 41 Managing Sitebuilder Plans ............................................................................................... 46 Managing Sitebuilder Sites ................................................................................................ 50 Managing Dedicated Servers ...................................................................................................... 52 Activating Dedicated Server Subscription ......................................................................... 53 Managing Nodes by Groups ........................................................................................................ 53 Selling Licenses ........................................................................................................................... 55 Managing Key Administrator Plug-Ins ............................................................................... 56 Selecting License Classes to Provide ............................................................................... 58 Managing Licenses ........................................................................................................... 60 Allocating IP Addresses ............................................................................................................... 64 Supervising Service Level ........................................................................................................... 65 Configuring Traffic Classes ......................................................................................................... 66
- 4. Preface 4 Setting Up Domains Registration 68 How to Start Registering Domains Online ................................................................................... 69 Configuring Domain Registration Plug-Ins .................................................................................. 69 Top Level Domains Assignment .................................................................................................. 70 Setting Registrar Prices ............................................................................................................... 71 Allowing Domain Transfer Per Registrar TLDs ........................................................................... 74 Configuring Default Records for Zone Files (DNS Templates) ................................................... 74 Specifying Name Server Sets ...................................................................................................... 76 Registering Internationalized Domain Names ............................................................................. 76 Managing Contacts Used for Domain Registration ..................................................................... 77 Specifying Whois Servers ............................................................................................................ 78 Setting Up HTTP Whois Search ........................................................................................ 79 Viewing Incoming and Outgoing Domain Registration E-mails ................................................... 80 Setting Up Billing System 81 Understanding the Parallels Business Automation - Standard Billing System ............................ 82 Calculations for the Services Provided ............................................................................. 85 System-Wide Billing Settings ....................................................................................................... 85 Pricing and Discounts .................................................................................................................. 86 Managing Prices ................................................................................................................ 87 Setting Credit Terms .................................................................................................................... 88 Configuring Taxation.................................................................................................................... 89 Configuring Fraud Protection ....................................................................................................... 90 Adjusting Anti-Fraud Plug-ins General Settings ................................................................ 92 Managing Accounts and Documents Held Up by Anti-Fraud Filters ................................. 92 Configuring Credit Card Payment Plug-ins ................................................................................. 94 What Payment Plug-Ins are Available ............................................................................... 94 How to Configure a Payment Plug-In ................................................................................ 94 Activating Payment Plug-Ins and Making Them Available for Resellers .......................... 95 Security With CVV and AVS.............................................................................................. 95 Configuring Bank Transfer Payment Plug-ins ............................................................................. 96 Using Specific Accounting ........................................................................................................... 97 Russian Accounting Options ............................................................................................. 98 Managing Website and Online Store 100 Configuring and Opening Store ................................................................................................. 103 Adjusting Hosting Plans Listing ....................................................................................... 104 Entering Referral Question .............................................................................................. 105 Viewing Revenue per Referrers ...................................................................................... 106 Managing Store Secure Keys .......................................................................................... 107 Managing Resellers‟ Stores ....................................................................................................... 109 Customizing Store Using File Manager ..................................................................................... 110 Known Problems Related to Store ............................................................................................ 115 Managing Payment Methods 117 Configuring Encryption for Payment Methods ........................................................................... 118 Managing Recurring Payments ................................................................................................. 118 How a Payment Method Can be Added .................................................................................... 119 Managing Credit Cards .............................................................................................................. 119 How to Start Accepting Credit Cards............................................................................... 121 Setting Transactions Approval and Processing Mode ................................................... 121 What is CVV .................................................................................................................... 124 Managing Bank Accounts .......................................................................................................... 125
- 5. Preface 5 How to Start Accepting Bank Transfers .......................................................................... 125 Adding Bank Account Manually....................................................................................... 126 Viewing Transaction Log ........................................................................................................... 126 Managing Hosting Plans 127 Hosting Plan Types.................................................................................................................... 128 Hosting Plans Categories .......................................................................................................... 128 Creating Hosting Plans .............................................................................................................. 129 Creating Virtuozzo Container Hosting Plan ..................................................................... 133 Creating Plesk Domain Hosting Plan .............................................................................. 138 Creating Plesk Client Hosting Plan ................................................................................. 143 Creating Plesk Virtual Node Hosting Plan ....................................................................... 146 Creating Domain Registration Hosting Plan .................................................................... 151 Creating Virtuozzo Dedicated Node Hosting Plan .......................................................... 154 Creating Plesk Dedicated Node Hosting Plan ................................................................. 155 Creating Miscellaneous Hosting Plan ............................................................................. 158 Creating and Selling the Trial-Only Hosting Plans .......................................................... 160 Upgrading Hosting Plans ........................................................................................................... 161 Changing Hosting Plan Billable Resources Configuration .............................................. 162 Adding Custom Services to a Hosting Plan ............................................................................... 166 Managing Hosting Plans by Versions ........................................................................................ 168 Creating a Hosting Plan on the Basis of an Existing One ......................................................... 169 Promoting Hosting Plans ........................................................................................................... 169 Calculations for the Hosting Plan Change ................................................................................. 170 Managing Accounts 171 Users ......................................................................................................................................... 171 User Roles ................................................................................................................................. 172 Permissions ............................................................................................................................... 172 Creating Accounts ..................................................................................................................... 173 Entering User Agreement .......................................................................................................... 174 Assigning a Tax Zone ................................................................................................................ 176 Granting a Discount ................................................................................................................... 177 Adjusting Account Balance ........................................................................................................ 177 Viewing the Account Billing History ........................................................................................... 179 Managing the Set of Events a Customer Receives E-Mail Notifications ................................... 179 Managing Account Contacts by Versions .................................................................................. 179 Changing a Customer Billing Day.............................................................................................. 180 Managing Resellers 183 Entering Reseller Agreement .................................................................................................... 184 Assigning Partner Discount to Reseller Account ....................................................................... 184 Assigning Discount to Reseller Account .................................................................................... 184 Hiding Reseller‟s URL................................................................................................................ 185 Managing Reseller Account Profile ........................................................................................... 187 Reseller Account General Settings ................................................................................. 188 Reseller Financial Info ..................................................................................................... 190 Reseller Contact Information ........................................................................................... 191 Reseller Notifications Settings ......................................................................................... 192 Reseller Account Users ................................................................................................... 193 Reseller Customers‟ Accounts ........................................................................................ 194 Hardware Nodes Owned by Reseller .............................................................................. 195 Reseller Domains ............................................................................................................ 196 Reseller‟s Subscriptions .................................................................................................. 197 Reseller URL Hiding ........................................................................................................ 199
- 6. Preface 6 Reseller Account Extended Attributes ............................................................................. 200 Reseller Billing History .................................................................................................... 201 Reseller‟s Statements ..................................................................................................... 201 Payment Methods Saved for Reseller Account ............................................................... 202 Virtuozzo Containers Owned by Reseller ....................................................................... 203 IP Pools Allocated for Reseller ........................................................................................ 204 Creating Hosting Plan for Reseller ............................................................................................ 204 Managing Receivables 205 Understanding Parallels Business Automation - Standard Billing Workflow ............................. 206 Viewing and Immediately Operating Receivables ..................................................................... 206 Processing Offline Payments and Changing Payment Method ...................................... 209 Increasing Accounts Balance by Online Payment or Bank Transfer .............................. 209 Editing Orders and Invoices ............................................................................................ 210 Issuing Invoices Manually ............................................................................................... 211 Reopening Cutoff Invoices .............................................................................................. 211 Processing Documents Paid by Credit Cards ........................................................................... 211 Processing Documents Paid by Bank Transfers ....................................................................... 212 Refunding Documents Paid by Credit Cards ............................................................................. 214 Recreating Orders With Updated Tax Rates ............................................................................. 215 Printing out Documents ............................................................................................................. 215 Managing Subscriptions 216 Renewing Subscriptions ............................................................................................................ 217 Managing Subscription Grace Period ........................................................................................ 218 Terminating Subscriptions ......................................................................................................... 218 Changing Account for Subscription ........................................................................................... 219 Upgrading Dedicated Third-Party Subscriptions ....................................................................... 220 Sending Subscription Notification .............................................................................................. 220 Synchronizing Customer System With Subscription ................................................................. 220 Managing Resold Subscriptions ................................................................................................ 221 Managing Subscription Attributes .............................................................................................. 224 Managing Payables in Reseller Control Center 225 Viewing Balance of Reseller Account Payable .......................................................................... 226 Increasing Reseller Account Balance ........................................................................................ 226 Managing Financial Documents Issued by HSP ....................................................................... 227 Managing Orders ............................................................................................................. 227 Paying HSP Invoices ....................................................................................................... 228 Viewing Payments ........................................................................................................... 228 Viewing Adjustments ....................................................................................................... 229 Viewing Statements Issued by HSP .......................................................................................... 229 Managing Containers................................................................................................................. 230 Viewing Billing Reports .................................................................................................... 231 Managing Both OS and Application Templates for Containers ....................................... 233 Setting Up Both Trial Containers and Containers Backups Creation .............................. 247 Keeping Container Root Passwords in Parallels Business Automation - Standard Database ......................................................................................................................................... 247 Backups Management ..................................................................................................... 248 Managing Plesk Clients and Domains ....................................................................................... 250 Plesk Applications Vault Management ............................................................................ 252 Support and Administration ....................................................................................................... 255 Using the Problem Viewer ............................................................................................... 256 Trouble Ticket System ..................................................................................................... 256 Using the Screens Viewer ............................................................................................... 259
- 7. Preface 7 Using the Mass Mailer ..................................................................................................... 259 Managing Parallels Business Automation - Standard Objects Description Templates... 259 Managing Events ............................................................................................................. 260 Service Logging In to Resellers and Customers Tools ................................................... 262 Using the Maintenance Mode for your Hardware Nodes ................................................ 262 Managing the User Password Strength .......................................................................... 262 Updating Parallels Business Automation - Standard ...................................................... 262 Checking Parallels Business Automation - Standard Database Integrity ....................... 266 Setting the Statistics Storage Period ............................................................................... 267 Tasks Management ......................................................................................................... 268 Viewing Log Files ............................................................................................................ 269 Marketing and Affiliate Programs .............................................................................................. 271 Configuring your Store to Collect Referrals Statistics ..................................................... 272 Managing Marketing Campaigns..................................................................................... 272 Managing Affiliate Programs ........................................................................................... 273 Customizing the Parallels Business Automation - Standard Tools Appearance ............ 275 XML-Based Data Import and Export .......................................................................................... 276 Resolving Data Conflicts ........................................................................................................... 277 Resolving Container Subscriptions Registration Conflicts .............................................. 279 Synchronizing the Plesk Subscription on a Node and in Parallels Business Automation - Standard Database ......................................................................................................... 280 Integration and Customization Opportunities ............................................................................ 281 Parallels Business Automation - Standard API and Customization ................................ 282 Application Templates Creation ...................................................................................... 282 Parallels Business Automation - Standard Internal Licensing ................................................... 283 Installing License Certificates .......................................................................................... 283 Getting Technical Support ......................................................................................................... 284 An Overview of Parallels Technical Support ................................................................... 285 Questions for Technical Support ..................................................................................... 285 How to Send Support Questions ..................................................................................... 285
- 8. CHAPTER 1 Preface In this chapter: Typographical Conventions ............................................................................... 8 Feedback .......................................................................................................... 9 Typographical Conventions Before you start using this guide, it is important to understand the documentation conventions used in it. The following kinds of formatting in the text identify special information. Formatting convention Type of Information Example Special Bold Items you must select, Go to the System tab. such as menu options, command buttons, or items in a list. Titles of chapters, Read the Basic sections, and Administration chapter. subsections. Italics Used to emphasize the The system supports the importance of a point, to so called wildcard introduce a term or to character search. designate a command line placeholder, which is to be replaced with a real name or value. Monospace The names of The license file is located commands, files, in the directories, and domain http://docs/common/ names. licenses directory.
- 9. Preface 9 Preformatted On-screen computer # ls –al /files output in your command- total 14470 line sessions; source code in XML, C++, or other programming languages. Preformatted What you type, # cd /root/rpms/php Bold contrasted with on-screen computer output. CAPITALS Names of keys on the SHIFT, CTRL, ALT keyboard. KEY+KEY Key combinations for CTRL+P, ALT+F4 which the user must press and hold down one key and then press another. Feedback If you have found a mistake in this guide, or if you have suggestions or ideas on how to improve this guide, please send your feedback using the online form at http://www.parallels.com/en/support/usersdoc/. Please include in your report the guide‟s title, chapter and section titles, and the fragment of text in which you have found an error.
- 10. CHAPTER 2 About This Guide This Guide describes the most important and frequently-used Parallels Business Automation - Standard working scenarios including initial settings for the system. Note: The PDF-version of this Guide is an overview of the HSPC overall functionality and is not to be used as a thorough howto. For details see context-sensitive HTML help (the Help link at the upper right corner of every screen). In this chapter: Audience ........................................................................................................... 11
- 11. Audience This guide is addressed to Hosting Service Providers and helps both to evaluate the product and get acquainted with Parallels Business Automation - Standard.
- 12. CHAPTER 3 Meet the Parallels Business Automation - Standard Parallels Business Automation - Standard is an end-to-end solution for hosting service providers (HSPs) and Internet Data Centers covering full life-cycle of HSP/IDC operations. Parallels Business Automation - Standard allows HSPs to drastically decrease the cost of operating hosting business while increasing revenues, developing new reseller channels, and improving usage of hardware and personnel resources. In this chapter: Parallels Business Automation - Standard Advantages ..................................... 13 Parallels Business Automation - Standard Hardware Requirements.................. 16 Parallels Business Automation - Standard Users............................................... 18 Browsers Compatible with Parallels Business Automation - Standard ............... 19 Connecting to Parallels Business Automation - Standard Browser-Based Tools 20 Parallels Business Automation - Standard Interface Features ........................... 21
- 13. Parallels Business Automation - Standard Advantages Parallels Business Automation - Standard includes everything a company needs to run a successful and profitable hosting business from advanced technology and tools to manage your servers and overall infrastructure to billing, sales channel management, and e- commerce application: The full range of services supported: Domain registration Parallels Plesk Sitebuilder support Plesk Domain hosting Dedicated servers for Virtuozzo Container hosting resellers Parallels Plesk Control Dedicated or Co-location Panel and Parallels Plesk Sitebuilder licenses Miscellaneous Complete infrastructure management: Powerful Container Server-/client-side backups management Integrated trouble ticketing IPs allocation and DNS and External Helpdesks administration support Flexible self-provisioning Maintenance automation and more Integrated complete billing solution: Customizable online store Discounts, promotions, coupon codes Country-specific accounting Taxation with tax exemption Automated recurring invoicing Automated upgrades/downgrades Private label resellers Customizable notifications and more Credit Cards processing through over 30 payment gateways (new added monthly):
- 14. integrated with fraud sensitive data is encrypted screening delayed capture flexible manual approval CVV/AVS verification and rules more refunds, reversals, credits Bank transfer payments for German (DTAUS), Spanish (Norma 19), and Netherlands (ClieOp3) standards: flexible batch management with approval queues. Domain registrations through over 25 domain registrars (new added monthly): Wide range of Operating Systems and Applications for Container hosting: Centralized management Redhat, Fedora, Suse, Debian Automated upgrades Open-source and commercial applications Over 50 applications Game servers and more Easy customization and integration:
- 15. Customizable PHP based Application templates store creation guide Notifications customization Powerful API Customizable menu items Advanced multi-language support Colors, logos, page content XML data export/import tools Create your own plug-ins Everything in one box!
- 16. Parallels Business Automation - Standard Hardware Requirements Recommended hardware configuration is two or more computers for Hardware Nodes. Note: Parallels Business Automation - Standard can work well with just one Hardware Node, but existence of two nodes increases availability of the hosting service. With two or more nodes one of them may be taken off-line for maintenance, replacement or upgrade with minimal disruption for the hosting service. If you use Parallels Virtuozzo Containers, we recommend installing the Management Node software in a special service Container hosted on one of your Hardware Nodes. In this case that single computer shall meet both Hardware Node and Management Node requirements and you then need at least one workstation for system administrator to manage it. However, you can have your Management Node as a separate computer. Management Node requirements (if the Management Node is a separate computer) IBM PC-compatible computer with 2 GHz (or higher) Intel Celeron, Pentium, or AMD Athlon CPU; At least 1 GB of RAM; At least 40 GB of total disk space; Network card; Virtuozzo Hardware Node Requirements IBM PC-compatible computer; Intel Celeron, Pentium II, Pentium III, Pentium 4, or AMD Athlon CPU; At least 128 MB of RAM; Hard drive(s) with at least 4 GB of free disk space; Network card (either Intel EtherExpress100 (i82557-, i82558- or i82559-based) or 3Com (3c905 or 3c905B or 3c595) are recommended). SCSI controllers: Adaptec7xxx SCSI controller (including AHA 2940/3940/3944/29160); RAID controller based on the AMI MegaRAID chips (including DELL PowerRAID PERC2/PERC3). Caution: For Athlon-based systems: It is not recommended to use computers with VIA chipsets. Plesk Hardware Node Requirements: The minimal hardware requirements for the Plesk installation are the same as those of the operating system intended to be used with Plesk.
- 17. Number of domains Amount of RAM Processor 100 256 MB Pentium II 500 512 MB Pentium III 1500 2000 MB dual Pentium III 2000 4000 MB dual Pentium IV Sitebuilder Hardware Node requirements: RAM 256mb 30 Mb HDD space for Sitebuilder installation (+ 1 Mb per User‟s web site) - minimal configuration. CPU Celeron 1,7 Ethernet 10 Mb For more details (OS versions, additional software) please refer to the Sitebuilder Installation guide shipped together with the product.
- 18. Parallels Business Automation - Standard Users The following Account types exist within Parallels Business Automation - Standard: Provider Account (only one Account of such type can exist). This Account is registered during Parallels Business Automation - Standard installation and it always has the ID=1. All registered persons that have role in Provider Account are considered as Provider staff members with particular access permissions to Parallels Business Automation - Standard Provider Control Center. The number of Provider staff members that can concurrently log in to the Provider Control Center is defined by the Parallels Business Automation - Standard license. Reseller Account. Reseller Accounts are registered using the Account Director > Reseller Manager. The number of Reseller Accounts is defined in the Parallels Business Automation - Standard License. All registered persons that have role in Reseller Account are considered as Reseller staff members with particular access permissions to Parallels Business Automation - Standard Reseller Control Center. Customer Account. Customer Accounts are being registered using the Account Director > Customer Manager. Customer Accounts can be of two types: personal or business. All persons associated with Customer Account have access to Parallels Business Automation - Standard Control Panels.
- 19. Browsers Compatible with Parallels Business Automation - Standard The following browsers are fully compatible with Parallels Business Automation - Standard web-based tools: For IBM PC compatible computers: Microsoft Internet Explorer 5.5, 6.0 and above, Netscape Navigator 7.0 and above, Opera 7.5.3 and above, Mozilla 1.5 and above, Firefox 1.0 and above. For Macintosh: Safari 1.3 and above, Microsoft Internet Explorer for Mac 5.2, Opera 8.5 Mozilla/Firefox 1.07.
- 20. Connecting to Parallels Business Automation - Standard Browser-Based Tools To connect to the Parallels Business Automation - Standard tools, enter into your browser the Management Node hostname and append the tool index (http://hostname/index). If no tool index is specified, then nothing to be appended to open the tool: Tool Tool index Public Site Online Store Provider Control Center pcc Reseller Control Center rcc Control Panel cp My Control Panel mycp The SSL protocol can be enabled separately for each of Parallels Business Automation - Standard web-based tools. The SSL configuration is available both in Provider and Reseller Control Centers. Note: To connect to the My Control Panel, it is necessary to create a Container subscription, log in to the Control Panel, then create a user (if System Administrator Control Panel Application is installed inside Container) or a mailbox in multiple domains (if Workgroup Administrator Control Panel is installed inside Container). After this you can log in to the My Control Panel with the e-mail address as a login and a user regular password.
- 21. Parallels Business Automation - Standard Interface Features Navigation To use one or another Parallels Business Automation - Standard component or tool, please use the namespace tree located in the left pane. Control Centers specific: You can hide/display the namespace tree by clicking on the slider at the vertical bar that separates the left and the right parts of the screen. When you start your Parallels Business Automation - Standard session, the path (chain of links) appears at the top of the screen. These links provide the “breadcrumb navigation” and show you the path to your actual location within the Parallels Business Automation - Standard. By clicking on these links, you can be one or more (depending on your location) levels up. Main Screen The right pane of Parallels Business Automation - Standard screen serves for operating components selected from the namespace tree. The main screen shows the Parallels Business Automation - Standard Directors‟ or Managers‟ dashboards, lists of objects, single objects‟ properties, or other related data. Each Parallels Business Automation - Standard component (Director or Manager) has its own dashboard. Moreover, the Parallels Business Automation - Standard has its dashboard that may be considered as 30,000-foot view of tools and operations. So, a dashboard is the Parallels Business Automation - Standard component „front-page‟ that provides you with the most important statistics and a place to start including: Shortcuts to the lists of objects. Information about the number of objects with separate counters for the objects in different states like Active Accounts, Accounts on Hold, Running Containers, etc. Shortcuts for the creation of new objects that fall into the functionality of Parallels Business Automation - Standard component selected. To facilitate operating the lists of objects you can use: Search particular item within the list or filter the items by a particular property. The Search and filter bar is located at the top of each list. Hide/Show search and filter bars, action bars, tables and create/edit forms sections. Their hide/show status is retained throughout the session.
- 22. Change Sorting Order. To this effect, click on the column-heading you want to sort by. In this case, the special pointer (small triangle) appears at the top of each column. This triangle indicates current sorting order: peak-up or peak-down for ascending and descending order respectively. Repeating click on the same link in column-heading changes sorting order from ascending to descending (and conversely) within single property. Change List Size. It is possible to set the listing to 20, 40, or 80 items per page. Appropriate links are above the list, to the right. Special links for viewing pages (page numbers, next,last) are also provided and you can find them both at the beginning and the end of the list. Export lists to Excel. Parallels Business Automation - Standard allows you to export data from any list in Parallels Business Automation - Standard to Excel, thus facilitating data operations. The information is exported from the whole list, not only from the visible part. For example, if you have set the listing to 40 items per page and the whole list includes 100 entries, you will get an excel format document covering 100 items. The Export to Excel icon is located above and under the lists. Set columns visibility. You can choose the columns to be displayed in the list tables by clicking on the icon above and under the list and enabling/disabling the corresponding entries in the drop-down menu. You are also allowed to set the columns order by drag- and-dropping the column titles. In order to immediately bring the screen content in correspondence with actual state of affairs, you can Refresh the screen using the button located at the upper right corner of the screen. The Help button located at the upper right corner of each screen shows the context-sensitive HTML help. Screen ID is located at the upper-right corner of each screen. Screen ID allows to refer to a screen for customization purposes or in the problem report. In addition, each screen ID is a clickable link that leads the the Screens Viewer and allows getting a screen alias immediately. Adding a Comment to the Parallels Business Automation - Standard Object You can add a free-form comment to almost any of Parallels Business Automation - Standard object. To this effect click on the Add comment link at the upper-right corner of an object view form.
- 23. CHAPTER 4 General Configuration of Parallels Business Automation - Standard When you log in to the Parallels Business Automation - Standard Provider or Reseller Control Center first time, the Setup Wizard helps you to make the most important initial settings. Please check the initial configuration of the Parallels Business Automation - Standard installation: Submit/edit the company name and sender e-mail address (messenger) used in notifications. Set data retention rules both for system events (on page 260) and logs (on page 269). Make the regional settings including the interface language, set the first day of week (monday or sunday), the default time zone to bound system events and logs, select the system-wide currency. Set up secure communications (turn on SSL, generate CSR, install signed secure certificate). In addition, to facilitate the operations (like domain registration) performed on behalf of the default Provider account created in Parallels Business Automation - Standard (for Provider Control Center users only), it is necessary to check and adjust if needed, the contact information containing in the default Provider account. Note: The special Getting Started checklist is provided for Resellers. In this chapter: Checking Provider Account Contacts ................................................................ 24 Setting Up Access Permissions for Parallels Business Automation - Standard Users 24 Setting Up Messenger and S/MIME Signing for E-mail ...................................... 26 Selecting Regional Settings ............................................................................... 26 Customizing the Onscreen Help in Control Panel .............................................. 28 Securing the Parallels Business Automation - Standard Tools Using SSL ......... 28
- 24. 24 General Configuration of Parallels Business Automation - Standard Checking Provider Account Contacts Please fill all the fields in the default Accounts‟ profile (contacts, etc.). This is necessary for successful domains registration since the information from an Account profile is being transferred to a Registrar if you, for example, decide to register a domain for one of your own accounts. Note: Editing the Account profile and contacts does not mean creation of new Parallels Business Automation - Standard Users. In other words, it does not affect login credentials. To edit the Provider Account contacts, click the topmost item in the Navigation tree (in the left pane) and select the Company Profile tab and then click the Contacts tab. Setting Up Access Permissions for Parallels Business Automation - Standard Users To log in to Parallels Business Automation - Standard, a registered user must have a role in one of accounts registered in Parallels Business Automation - Standard. This role gains a user particular access permissions to particular Parallels Business Automation - Standard tools. It is possible to set permissions only if a user is associated with a particular account. Users that are not associated with an account cannot log in to Parallels Business Automation - Standard tools. In Parallels Business Automation - Standard, editable access permissions are set for Control Center users only. Customers that have access to Control Panel can gain only one role (Customer Administrator) that allows working in Control Panel, and in this case the set of tools available depends on the applications included in customer's subscription, but not on the role. For the clean installation, there is a set of default roles both for Provider and Reseller staff members (i.e., registered users under Provider or Reseller account). Provider can edit access permissions for every role and add new roles both for Provider staff members and Reseller staff members. Resellers can only view the access permissions set for each Reseller staff role.
- 25. General Configuration of Parallels Business Automation - Standard 25 Basic Notions Users Users (staff members, customers, and resellers) permissions are identified by Accounts. Each person is associated with one Account and may have different sets of access permissions within that Account. An Account can have multiple Users associated with it. Staff members are users registered within the Provider Account. User Roles Roles are assigned to a User within the Account. A Role defines a set of access permissions to the Parallels Business Automation - Standard tools. In the Parallels Business Automation - Standard there are three customizable roles for Provider staff members and three for Reseller staff members. The set of permissions in each Role is defined by Provider. Customers get the default and non-customizable role of Control Panel Administrator. Permissions Permissions are assigned per Role, not per individual user. Permissions are assigned separately to Roles available for HSP staff members and Resellers. How Permissions Control is Organized Only Provider can edit access permissions from the Parallels Business Automation - Standard Provider control Center. And the Reseller Control Center allows Resellers to view permissions set for Reseller staff members roles (Operations Administrator, Sales and Marketing, Accountant, etc.) by Provider. Resellers can read this section to get acquainted with the Parallels Business Automation - Standard security model and the mechanism of roles assignment. Account is the basic Parallels Business Automation - Standard security notion. All operations performed within the system are connected with different Accounts. A person registered within an Account can gain the certain access permissions to Parallels Business Automation - Standard tools, depending on the type of Account. The following Account types exist in Parallels Business Automation - Standard system: Provider Account (only one Account of such type can exist in your Parallels Business Automation - Standard system). This Account is created during the Parallels Business Automation - Standard installation. All persons associated with Provider Account are considered as Provider staff members with particular access permissions to Parallels Business Automation - Standard Provider Control Center. The number of Provider staff members that can concurrently log in to the Provider Control Center is defined by the Parallels Business Automation - Standard license. Reseller Account. Reseller Accounts are registered using the Account Director > Reseller Manager. The number of Reseller Accounts is defined in the Parallels Business Automation - Standard License. All persons associated with Reseller Account are considered as Reseller staff members and can be granted a particular role (i.e., access permissions) within Parallels Business Automation - Standard Reseller Control Center.
- 26. 26 General Configuration of Parallels Business Automation - Standard Customer Account. Customer Accounts are registered using the Account Director > Customer Manager. Customer Accounts can be of two types: personal or business. All persons associated with Customer Account have access to Parallels Business Automation - Standard Control Panels. Access permissions per user role can be set in the Configuration Director > Security Manager. Roles per account can be assigned registered persons in the Configuration Director > Security Manager > All Users. Select a user and then select the Accounts tab. Figure 1: PBAs Security Model Setting Up Messenger and S/MIME Signing for E-mail Parallels Business Automation - Standard provides an opportunity to automatically generate and send e-mail notifications to Provider Administrator and other HSP staff members (for example, about resources overusage or nodes outages) or to HSP Customers (for example, if Subscription period is about to expire). The set of events that can be followed by e-mail notifications is read-only and defined in the Event Manager (on page 260). The component that automatically generates and sends e-mail notifications is called „Messenger‟. Notifications themselves may be configured for a certain number of events that take place within Parallels Business Automation - Standard system and tracked by the Event Manager. Each message (including automatically generated ones) shall have the „From‟ field. For automatically-sent messages (or notifications) the „From‟ field should contain the sender name and e-mail of a messenger. In addition, you can enable or disable e-mail notifications sending and select the e-mail messages encoding (character set). Finally, you can configure e-mail messages S/MIME signing. To set the messenger, go to the Configuration Director - Miscellaneous Settings - E-Mail Setup. Selecting Regional Settings
- 27. General Configuration of Parallels Business Automation - Standard 27 To make regional settings, go to the Configuration Director - Miscellaneous Settings - Regional Settings. The regional settings include: The language; The default time zone; The calendar settings (the first day of week); The system-wide currency. Selecting languages available for your customers to switch the interface. Language The language setting allows you to set the system-wide language of the Parallels Business Automation - Standard interface. Default Time Zone In respect to registration of the events that happen within the system, the Parallels Business Automation - Standard database is bound to GMT. This means that automatically-generated notifications and system messages (for example, about subscriptions expiration dates) may occur to be hardly understandable for the customers that reside in the other time zones. Thus, the Parallels Business Automation - Standard provides an opportunity of setting different time zones for different Customers (or Resellers). This can be done during creation of a new Account or later. The special time zone can be set for each user associated with an Account. After this, all the time-related data (in Action Log, Event Manager, or automatically-generated notifications) will be bound to the User‟s time zone, without the need for him (or her) to recalculate time. However, if most of your prospect customers will reside in the single time zone, it is quite reasonable to set default time zone for the newly registered persons. First Day of Week You can select the day a week starts. For example, this setting is used when setting the weekly time interval in the Billing Reports (on page 232) view. Currency You can set the system-wide currency (for all financial documents and Hosting Plan prices). Resellers can set the own currency and enter the cross rate between the Provider currency and Reseller currency. This feature is very useful for selling through international channels as well as having separate branches in different countries around the world.
- 28. 28 General Configuration of Parallels Business Automation - Standard Note: Parallels Business Automation - Standard is a single-currency system. In other words automatic currency recalculations are not available. If you change the system- wide currency, you will have the unified currency sign, fractional part format, etc., however you will need to recalculate all prices manually. For example, most of domain- registration Plug-Ins support US Dollar only as an accounting currency. Thus, in order to update domain-registration prices correctly the system-wide currency should be US Dollar by prices update, otherwise the new prices will not be used in Parallels Business Automation - Standard billing. Available Languages Check the boxes next to language names to allow your customers to switch the interface into these languages. The list of languages in this section is comprised of the languages shipped within separate language packs with Parallels Business Automation - Standard kit and installed during the HSPC system configuration. Customizing the Onscreen Help in Control Panel Each screen of the Parallels Business Automation - Standard Control Panels is provided with a short onscreen help topic. If needed, you can edit the onscreen help topics for each screen of the Control Panels your customers use. To this effect, login to the Control Panel (yourcompany.com/cp) using one of the logins of your Provider Account (as a staff member). In this case, on almost every Control Panel screen (excluding dashboards) a special “question-mark” icon appears at the upper right corner of the screen. Click at the screen you want to add a help topic for. The popup window with the help bar text appears. Type the text and click the Update button. From the Provider Control Center you can hide or show the onscreen help and show/hide in the source HTML of each Parallels Business Automation - Standard screen the special metatags used to mark the Parallels Business Automation - Standard screen elements (called controls). Usage of these metatags is described in details in the Parallels Business Automation - Standard SDK. Securing the Parallels Business Automation - Standard Tools Using SSL Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) provides a level of security and privacy for those wishing to conduct secure transactions over the Internet. Introduced to the Internet market by Netscape Communications, the SSL protocol protects HTTP transmissions over the Internet by adding a layer of encryption. This insures that your transactions are not subject to “sniffing” by a third party.
- 29. General Configuration of Parallels Business Automation - Standard 29 SSL provides visitors of your website with the confidence to communicate securely via an encrypted session. For companies wishing to conduct secure e-commerce, such as receiving credit card numbers or other sensitive information online, SSL is essential. Important: SSL Setup for Resellers SSL certificate is generated per vendor domain name. For provider, this domain name is Management Node hostname, by default. Resellers use the same domain as their provider until a reseller URL is not hidden (on page 185). Thus, if a reseller with not hidden URL tries to generate an SSL Certificate request, the same domain as provider‟s one will be used. This can corrupt provider‟s SSL settings. That is why Parallels Business Automation - Standard does not allow SSL setup for resellers with not hidden URL - the SSL Setup item is not available in RCC menu in this case. To make SSL Setup available for a reseller, provider should do the following: 1 Hide reseller URL (on page 185) to provide a reseller with own domain name, which makes it possible to generate an SSL Certificate for this reseller. 2 Make sure that Reseller Administrator permissions allow managing SSL. To this effect, go to the Configuration Director - Security Manager - Setup, select Reseller Permissions tab, and then select Reseller Administrator role. Open the Configuration Director > Miscellaneous settings item and make sure that the SSL Setup check box is selected. After this, SSL setup will become available for all resellers in Reseller Control Center. In this section: Getting the SSL Certificate................................................................................ 30 Enabling SSL for Parallels Business Automation - Standard Tools ................... 30
- 30. 30 General Configuration of Parallels Business Automation - Standard Getting the SSL Certificate For SSL to work a valid signed SSL certificate is required. Certificates are a standard way of binding a public key to a name. Public key encryption is a technique that uses a pair of asymmetric keys for encryption and decryption. Each pair of keys consists of a public key and a private key. The public key is made public by distributing it widely. The private key is never distributed; it is always kept secret. Data that is encrypted with the public key can be decrypted only with the private key. Conversely, data encrypted with the private key can be decrypted only with the public key. This asymmetry makes public key cryptography so useful. You can generate a self-signed certificate and use it for some time until the certificate “signed” by a trusted external authority: VeriSign (http://www.verisign.com) or Thawte (http://www.thawte.com) will be ready. Note: Netscape and Mozilla browsers automatically detect whether a website uses encryption of transmitted data or not (as for Internet Explorer, please encourage your website visitors who use IE to use Internet Explorer 5.0 or later). Thus, if you use a self- signed certificate, your website visitors will be notified that your website uses encryption, but the authority that signed a certificate is not recognized. So if you intend to conduct e-commerce at your website, it is better to obtain an SSL certificate signed by VeriSign or Thawte To obtain the SSL certificate: 1 Generate Certificate Request in the Configuration Director - Miscellaneous Settings - SSL Setup - Certificate Request tab. 2 After the Certificate request is generated, you can do one of the following: Copy the Certificate Request and send it to the Certificate Authority to obtain the signed Certificate and import it later; Generate self-signed Certificate and use it for some time. 3 Restart Apache on your Management Node. Please note that in this case your Management Node will be not available for some time. So if you already have customers by the moment of importing the SSL Certificate, your customer‟s Containers will also become offline till Apache on your Management Node restarts. Enabling SSL for Parallels Business Automation - Standard Tools You can enable the SSL protocol separately for the Provider Control Center and Reseller Control Canter, Control Panels, website, and your online store. To enable the SSL protocol, go to the Configuration Director - Miscellaneous Settings - SSL Setup. Select the the Enable SSL tab. You can enable the SSL protocol by checking the Enable SSL in Parallels Business Automation - Standard Web Tools boxes next to the name(s) of the web tools (Control Centers, Control Panels, store, etc.).
- 31. CHAPTER 5 Managing Parallels Business Automation - Standard Services and Data Center The tools for your Data Center management are collected under the Service Director. In spite of the fact that Parallels Business Automation - Standard operates the virtual- server farm, a Data Center should be understood in common sense, i.e., as a centralized storage facility to retain database information related to decision-making processes. In general, Parallels Business Automation - Standard Data Center activity includes the following: Servers (Nodes) management; DNS and IP addresses management; Service level management. The hardware configuration to run Parallels Business Automation - Standard includes one computer for Management Node and two or more computers for Hardware Nodes. A Management Node is a computer (or a specially configured Virtuozzo Container) used for management. It runs services for web-based management interface and the database containing information about customers and services. The Management Node also establishes connection with domain registrars and payment gates. A Hardware Node is a computer that runs the software (Virtuozzo, Plesk, etc.) that provides services for customers or a third-party software (server lease, collocation or dedicated hosting). Dedicated third-party servers can be grouped into racks. A rack in Parallels Business Automation - Standard is a logical container, it is just a record in the Parallels Business Automation - Standard database. Logical racks can follow the actual servers grouping at your Data Center. The Parallels Business Automation - Standard Data Center management tools allow managing the following servers: Servers that run Parallels Virtuozzo Containers that can be used for Virtuozzo Containers provisioning for customers and sold as dedicated servers. Servers that run Parallels Plesk Control Panel that can be used for Plesk Domains or Clients provisioning for customers and sold as dedicated servers. Plesk servers can also be installed inside Virtuozzo Containers. Servers that run Parallels Plesk Sitebuilder allowing a HSP to sell Sitebuilder services.
- 32. 32 Managing Parallels Business Automation - Standard Services and Data Center Third-party servers (server lease, collocation, dedicated servers). These servers cannot be managed directly from the Parallels Business Automation - Standard web-based interface, but in this case, the Parallels Business Automation - Standard takes care of all the billing matters including creation of dedicated subscription, charging a customer, issuing the renewal order, sending notifications, etc. In Parallels Business Automation - Standard, the Virtuozzo, Plesk, or Sitebuilder servers are called Nodes. And third-party servers are called Servers. Nodes and third-party servers can be registered and managed using the Service Director and, depending on a server designation, using the Plesk Manager, Virtuozzo Manager, Sitebuilder Manager, or Servers Manager for Plesk, Virtuozzo, Sitebuilder, or third-party servers respectively. Virtual Plesk Nodes (Parallels Plesk Control Panel installed inside a Virtuozzo Container) are registered automatically as the Plesk nodes, after the Plesk Virtual Node subscription is activated. In this chapter: Virtuozzo Nodes Specific Settings ..................................................................... 33 Sitebuilder Management.................................................................................... 33 Managing Dedicated Servers ............................................................................ 52 Managing Nodes by Groups .............................................................................. 53 Selling Licenses ................................................................................................ 55 Allocating IP Addresses..................................................................................... 64 Supervising Service Level ................................................................................. 65 Configuring Traffic Classes ............................................................................... 66
- 33. Managing Parallels Business Automation - Standard Services and Data Center 33 Virtuozzo Nodes Specific Settings The most wide management opportunities are provided in Parallels Business Automation - Standard for servers that run Virtuozzo (Virtuozzo nodes). For example, you can set up the traffic shaping for a Virtuozzo node or allow creation the name- based Containers. Sitebuilder Management Sitebuilder (http://www.parallels.com/en/products/sitebuilder/) is an easy to use web application designed to create and manage websites. Parallels Business Automation - Standard provides integration with Parallels Plesk Sitebuilder 2.1.1 and 3.0.1 for Unix/Linux and Parallels Plesk Sitebuilder 2.0.5 and 3.2.1 for Windows. Note: Sitebuilder for Windows sites are not published on Virtuozzo Containers, but on Plesk hosting only. This chapter describes the Sitebuilder Manager integrated in Parallels Business Automation - Standard Control Center. Sitebuilder Manager is used to administer Sitebuilder nodes, plans and sites and provide Sitebuilder services as an add-on within hosting plans. After nodes registration, Sitebuilder sites can be designed and published using the Parallels Business Automation - Standard Control Panel (see Parallels Business Automation - Standard Subscriber‟s guide for details). For more details about Sitebuilder services provisioning in Parallels Business Automation - Standard, please see the next topic (on page 35). Important: When preparing Parallels Plesk Sitebuilder for integration with Parallels Business Automation - Standard, please only install Parallels Plesk Sitebuilder itself and a Parallels Plesk Sitebuilder license. Do not configure anything additionally in Parallels Plesk Sitebuilder Administrator Control Panel. For example, DO NOT ADD HOSTS. When a Sitebuilder node is connected to Parallels Business Automation - Standard, everything is done automatically. Thus, any additional configuration on a Sitebuilder node side may cause problems. For example, if host(s) is(are) manually specified in a Sitebuilder node Administrator Control Panel, publishing sites from Parallels Business Automation - Standard fails. To avoid this, always do minimal configuration on Sitebuilder nodes that are planned to be connected to Parallels Business Automation - Standard. Sitebuilder Nodes (on page 41) are registered and modified in Service Director - Sitebuilder Manager - Nodes panel of Sitebuilder Manager. On the Nodes panel, you can search the existing nodes by name or ID, view the list of nodes, modify nodes and register new ones. On the Plans (on page 46) panel you can search plans by name or ID, add, remove or modify Sitebuilder plans.
- 34. 34 Managing Parallels Business Automation - Standard Services and Data Center On the Sites (on page 50) panel, you can search and view the sites on the Sitebuilder server. On the Setup (on page 40) panel, you can view available Sitebuilder modules and templates. In this section: Sitebuilder Services Provisioning ...................................................................... 35 Connecting Sitebuilder Nodes ........................................................................... 37 Setting Up Sitebuilder ........................................................................................ 40 Managing Sitebuilder Nodes ............................................................................. 41 Managing Sitebuilder Plans ............................................................................... 46 Managing Sitebuilder Sites ................................................................................ 50
- 35. Managing Parallels Business Automation - Standard Services and Data Center 35 Sitebuilder Services Provisioning There are two types of sites in Sitebuilder: trial web sites and regular web sites: A trial web site is a site with limited functionality. Trial sites cannot be published. They are created for users who use Sitebuilder for the first time. Also trial site has a time life of 30 days. If the trial web site is not transferred into regular web site upon expiration of its time-life this trial site is terminated. A regular web site is a site with a full functionality and ready for publishing. Parallels Business Automation - Standard automatically transfers trial Sitebuilder sites into regular after a customer pays the corresponding order. Sitebuilder integration with Parallels Business Automation - Standard allows the following scheme for Sitebuilder services provisioning: After Sitebuilder Manager is set up and Sitebuilder nodes are registered and synchronized, you can create Sitebuilder service offerings called Plans. Plans then can be included in hosting plans to be sold at your HSPstore (hosting plan types the Sitebuilder service can be included are: Virtuozzo Container, Plesk Client, Plesk Domain, Plesk Virtual Node. Sitebuilder services can be included in a hosting plan either during creation or later, under the Sitebuilder tab within a hosting plan properties. By design, the Sitebuilder service is always included in a Hosting Plan price. You can only set the fees for additional Sitebuilder sites, over the number included in a Sitebuilder plan. Thus, you can take the Sitebuilder service price into account when setting both setup and recurring fees for the Hosting Plan you want to include Sitebuilder services in. When a customer subscribes for a hosting plan with Sitebuilder service, two variants of Sitebuilder site hosting are available: If a customer has already passed the Sitebuilder site creation Wizard on one of your registered Sitebuilder nodes, he/she already has a trial Sitebuilder site with the unique code (called site alias) assigned. In this case, when a customer buys hosting with Sitebuilder services, he/she can check the box next to a Sitebuilder service offering, enter a Sitebuilder site alias when subscribing to a hosting plan and assign this Sitebuilder site to his/her subscription. Later, after an order is paid and subscription is activated, a customer can host this Sitebuilder site on his/her Container or Plesk domain. If a customer has no Sitebuilder sites by the moment of hosting plan purchase, he/she can check the box next to a Sitebuilder service offering and get a trial Sitebuilder site anyway, without the need for entering a site alias or passing a Sitebuilder Wizard. In this case, a trial and empty Sitebuilder site will be created automatically (the same option is available from Control Panel). The main designation of such empty site is to reserve a site alias for a customer and let customer save time and get Sitebuilder site already on a hosting plan purchase stage. A customer can later pass the Sitebuilder Wizard for this special empty Sitebuilder site.
- 36. 36 Managing Parallels Business Automation - Standard Services and Data Center A Sitebuilder site remains trial till a customer pays for hosting. After payment is received, a customer Sitebuilder site automatically becomes regular and a customer can host this site on his/her hosting (Container or Plesk domain) and publish it as soon as his/her subscription is activated. If a customer does not pay for hosting, a trial Sitebuilder site keeps remaining trial and if an order is not paid by the date a trial site lifetime expires (30 days after creation), this site is removed. Notes about Sitebuilder site troubleshooting by a customer: Only actually existing sites with valid site aliases are shown in Provider Control Center. Corrupted and deleted sites are shown in customer Control Panel and a customer can decide whether to permanently delete such a site. If a Sitebuilder site creation has failed (for example, due to technical problems on a Sitebuilder node), then the site status (shown in Control Panel only) is Pending and a customer can recreate this site from the Control Panel or delete it and get the refund for the Sitebuilder services. If a Sitebuilder site becomes not available due to its deletion on a Sitebuilder node, and this is not a customer fault or intention, then the site status (shown in Control Panel only) is Conflicts and a customer can delete the information about this site from Parallels Business Automation - Standard database and get the refund for the Sitebuilder services. Sitebuilder Installation: Sitebuilder requires installation on a dedicated physical or virtual node. For Sitebuilder installation instructions, please refer to the Sitebuilder original documentation. After installation, do the following to setup and configure Sitebuilder Manager: 1 Register Sitebuilder node(s), assign logins/passwords and URLs. In case the nodes are to be transferred to Resellers, associate the nodes with them. 2 Configure the message to be shown on the Publish screen of the Sitebuilder Wizard on a node. This message must help customers that do not yet have hosting for their Sitebuilder sites to get to your shop and buy hosting compatible with their sites. 3 Synchronize nodes, if required. Generally, synchronization is performed automatically after registration, however, if you enable or disable some templates or modules on a node using the native Sitebuilder Administrator Control Panel, you must synchronize a node with Parallels Business Automation - Standard database to make the newly enabled templates or modules available. 4 Create Sitebuilder plans and synchronize them to Sitebuilder nodes. In respect to Sitebuilder plans, such synchronization allows you to compare the set of templates/modules declared in a plan with an actual set of templates/modules available on each of Sitebuilder nodes registered in Parallels Business Automation - Standard. After such synchronization, you can see the match between plans and nodes and can decide upon the templates/modules that miss on nodes to provide services declared in plans. 5 Go to Provider Control Center - Billing Director - Product Manager - Hosting Plans and associate Sitebuilder with hosting plans as follows: Click on a hosting plan. Click on the Sitebuilder tab.
- 37. Managing Parallels Business Automation - Standard Services and Data Center 37 Under the Sitebuilder tab, click the Edit button. Check the Sitebuilder enabled box to enable Sitebuilder services for the selected hosting plan. Select a Sitebuilder plan to be included into the hosting plan. Click the Save button to confirm or the Cancel button to return to the previous menu. Note: If a reseller clones a Provider‟s plan, Sitebuilder settings for this hosting plan are reset to default (not enabled by default). Connecting Sitebuilder Nodes The connection to a Sitebuilder node is established using the special management interface called Remote Admin. Thus, for successful Sitebuilder node registration in Parallels Business Automation - Standard, the Remote Admin must be installed on a node before you start registering it. For more details about the Remote Admin installation, please refer to the Sitebuilder documentation. Note: The Sitebuilder administrator account login and password are used by Parallels Business Automation - Standard also for establishing connection to a Sitebuilder node API (Remote Admin). By default, Sitebuilder has only one administrator account with the user name root and the password sitebuilder. These login and password are used for initial logging in to the Sitebuilder Admin Panel. For security purposes, before registering a Sitebuilder node, we strongly recommend to log in to the Sitebuilder Admin Panel on this node and change the default administrator login/password. Parallels Business Automation - Standard allows granting access to a single Sitebuilder node both to a Provider account and a number of reseller accounts at the same time. In Provider Control Center a node registered for several accounts looks like a separate node assigned to a single reseller account. In Reseller Control Center such Sitebuilder node behaves like a dedicated node assigned to reseller. To grant access to a Sitebuilder node to a reseller account, log in to the Sitebuilder Admin Control Panel and create a reseller. Then get back to the Provider Control Center and register this Sitebuilder node as a new one but with URLs that use this reseller domains. At the same time, assign this Sitebuilder node to a corresponding reseller account registered in Parallels Business Automation - Standard. To register a Sitebuilder Node, open the Service Director submenu and select the Sitebuilder Manager. Click Nodes on the Sitebuilder Manager submenu. In this section: Registering Sitebuilder Nodes ........................................................................... 38
- 38. 38 Managing Parallels Business Automation - Standard Services and Data Center Registering Sitebuilder Nodes To register a new Sitebuilder Node: 1 Click the New Sitebuilder Node button. 2 Select the Sitebuilder platform and enter a new node hostname. Click Next. 3 Fill the form that appears on the screen: a Name - the Sitebuilder friendly name. You can type any name you consider convenient, including hostname (in this case a hostname will be considered just as an alphanumerical identifier). b Site Wizard URL - type the URL to Sitebuilder wizard (a 5-step wizard your customers will pass to build a trial site). The Site Wizard default URL is http://sitebuilder_node_hostname/wizard/, where sitebuilder_node_hostname must be replaced with the actual hostname of the Sitebuilder node you are registering. Note: Sitebuilder wizard URL format differs depending on Sitebuilder version. For Sitebuilder 2.x: To share a node with reseller created from the Sitebuilder Admin Control Panel, in the Site Wizard URL, replace sitebuilder_node_hostname with the reseller domain assigned when creating a reseller in Sitebuilder Admin Control Panel. Then set the reseller account registered in Parallels Business Automation - Standard as an owner of the node as this described below. For Sitebuilder 3.x: Go to the Sitebuilder Admin Panel, proceed to Server > Trial Site Settings and copy the Promotinal link. Paste this link into the Site Wizard URL field. c Remote Admin URL - Enter the URL to the Remote Admin on the Sitebuilder node you are registering. The default this URL is http://sitebuilder_node_hostname/remote_admin/, where sitebuilder_node_hostname must be replaced with the actual hostname of the Sitebuilder node you are registering. If you have not changed the Remote Admin directory during installation, enter the default URL. For Sitebuilder 3.x the Remote Admin URL is generated automatically and we do not recommend to change this. Note: To share a node with reseller created from the Sitebuilder Admin Control Panel, in the Remote Admin URL, replace sitebuilder_node_hostname with the reseller domain assigned when creating a reseller in Sitebuilder Admin Control Panel. Then set the reseller account registered in Parallels Business Automation - Standard as an owner of the node as this described below. d Administrator login name - Enter your Sitebuilder administrator account login used to log in to the web-based Sitebuilder Admin Panel. e Administrator Password - Enter your Sitebuilder administrator account password used to log in to the web-based Sitebuilder Admin Panel. f You can assign the Sitebuilder node to a certain account only during registration. The default owner is your Provider account. To reassign the node to another account (i.e., one of reseller accounts), click the Select button next to the Owner field and select a new owner account from the list that appears in the popup window.
- 39. Managing Parallels Business Automation - Standard Services and Data Center 39 Note: The only opportunity to assign a Sitebuilder node to an account is during a node registration. You can assign a node either to Provider account or to one of resellers accounts. After you finish registration (by clicking the Save button), the assignment will be saved for a node and cannot be changed in future. 4 Click the Save button to save changes and complete registration.
- 40. 40 Managing Parallels Business Automation - Standard Services and Data Center Setting Up Sitebuilder The Sitebuilder Manager Setup informs you about all Sitebuilder add-ons (programs like guestbook or photo gallery called modules and web page templates) available at all Sitebuilder nodes registered. The list of modules (or templates) displays the following: Modules (or Templates) - depending on the tab you select. - The list of modules or templates named according to the Sitebuilder naming convention. You cannot change these names, they are shown exactly as were fetched. Please, refer to the Sitebuilder documentation to know more about each module or template. Note: You can see the palette and style of each template using the Preview link placed in brackets next to each template name. Sitebuilder nodes friendly names you have assigned them during registration in Parallels Business Automation - Standard. The green tick next to a node name means that a given module or template is available on a node. Red cross next to a node name means that a module or a template is disabled on a node. The synchronization status is shown for the moment of the latest synchronization for each node. The process of fetching the information about templates and modules available on a Sitebuilder node is called synchronization. Normally, each node is synchronized automatically right after registration (on page 37). Important notes about Sitebuilder Nodes Synchronization: After a Sitebuilder node is registered, its synchronization is performed as follows: Manually. Using the Synchronize button at a node General Settings or Configuration screen. Please keep in mind that when you edit a Sitebuilder node configuration and save it, the changes are not automatically synchronized with a node, but just saved in the Parallels Business Automation - Standard database. To synchronize changes, you need to click the Synchronize button. This is done intentionally to save your time, because if a Sitebuilder node runs many sites, synchronization may take long (an hour or more). So the idea was to let you start synchronization when you really need this. Automatically. By means of a periodical task. The periodical task synchronizes the status of all registered Sitebuilder nodes every 5 minutes and performs sites synchronization for all registered Sitebuilder nodes every 8 hours. You can change the nodes status synchronization period in Action Log - Tasks Queue. Please note that Parallels Business Automation - Standard does not provide tools that allow enabling/disabling templates or modules on Sitebuilder nodes. Thus, if you want to enable or disable some templates or modules, you must do this using the original Sitebuilder Admin Control Panel. After the composition of enabled templates/modules on a Sitebuilder node have been changed, there are two ways to synchronize Sitebuilder node to refresh the data about a node in Parallels Business Automation - Standard database and make a newly enabled templates/modules available for Sitebuilder plans you create in Parallels Business Automation - Standard:
- 41. Managing Parallels Business Automation - Standard Services and Data Center 41 1 Synchronize either templates or modules for all Sitebuilder nodes registered by one click. To this effect, click the Modules or Templates tab to synchronize modules or templates respectively and then click the Synchronize button. 2 Per node as this described later in this guide. (on page 42) Managing Sitebuilder Nodes Sitebuilder Nodes are managed under the Service Director - Sitebuilder Manager in the Nodes panel. You can register a new node (on page 37), edit or remove a node. The list of Sitebuilder nodes displays the following: ID. A node numerical identifier assigned to a node on registration in Parallels Business Automation - Standard automatically. Name. A node friendly name. An arbitrary alphanumerical identifier assigned manually to a node. Used just to recognize a node when working in Parallels Business Automation - Standard web-based interface. Vendor. The name of the account that owns a node. A node can be assigned either to a Provider administrative account. or to a reseller account. After a node is assigned, the Sitebuilder services provided by this node can be sold on behalf of the owning account. i.e., either in the provider store, or in the store that belongs to the reseller account a node is assigned to. Sites. The number of Sitebuilder sites hosted on a node. Wizard URL. The URL to the Sitebuilder five-step website creation wizard on a node. Availability. The status a node currently has: Available. A node is online, up and running. Ready to provide Sitebuilder services having been managed via the Parallels Business Automation - Standard web- based interface. Not available. A node either is offline or down. The connection with a node is broken and Sitebuilder services provisioning using this node is not possible. To view or adjust a node settings, click on a node ID or name. In this section: Editing Sitebuilder Node Settings ...................................................................... 42 Managing Sites at a Node and Viewing Both Modules and Templates Available at a Node 43 Configuring Sitebuilder Wizard Publish Screen ................................................. 44
- 42. 42 Managing Parallels Business Automation - Standard Services and Data Center Editing Sitebuilder Node Settings A node connection, ownership, and other general settings and options are available under the General tab within a node properties. The Synchronize button serves for bringing the Parallels Business Automation - Standard database in correspondence with the actual services (modules and templates) available on a node. For example, is you have enabled some additional modules or templates on a node using the Sitebuilder Admin Panel, Parallels Business Automation - Standard will not know about this until you manually synchronize a node with Parallels Business Automation - Standard. A node synchronization also plays an important role when synchronizing Sitebuilder plans with Sitebuilder nodes (on page 50) registered in Parallels Business Automation - Standard. To log in to the original Sitebuilder Admin Control Panel, click the Login to Sitebuilder button. To break the connection to a node and unregister it, you can use the Delete button. For example, the Delete button allows you to reassign a node to another account. To edit the current node settings, click the Edit button. The node parameters available for editing are: Name - the Sitebuilder node friendly name. You can type any name you consider convenient, including hostname (in this case a hostname will be considered just as an alphanumerical identifier). Site Wizard URL - the URL to Sitebuilder wizard (a 5-step wizard your customers will pass to build a trial site). The Site Wizard default URL is http://sitebuilder_node_hostname/wizard/index.php, where sitebuilder_node_hostname must be replaced with the actual hostname of the Sitebuilder node. If you have changed this URL on a node, please do not forget to specify the new URL here to make it possible for customers who have purchased plans served by this node to follow this URL and get a trial site code (site alias). Remote Admin URL - the URL to the Remote Admin on the Sitebuilder node. The default URL is http://sitebuilder_node_hostname/remote_admin/, where sitebuilder_node_hostname must be replaced with the actual hostname of the Sitebuilder node. If you have not changed the Remote Admin directory, leave the default URL, if this URL have changed - update it to provide the data exchange between Parallels Business Automation - Standard and a Sitebuilder node.. Remote Admin Login - the Sitebuilder administrator account login used to log in to the web-based Sitebuilder Admin Panel. It is strongly recommended to change the default login as soon as possible and use a new one. Remote Admin Password - the Sitebuilder administrator account password used to log in to the web-based Sitebuilder Admin Panel. It is strongly recommended to change the default password as soon as possible and use a new one.
- 43. Managing Parallels Business Automation - Standard Services and Data Center 43 Trial Plan - the Sitebuilder plan assigned not per hosting plan, but per Sitebuilder node. When customers pass the 5-step website creation wizard, they create their websites in accordance with this trial plan. Default trial plans exist on each Sitebuilder node. After a node is registered in Parallels Business Automation - Standard, you can reassign any of Sitebuilder plans created in Parallels Business Automation - Standard as a trial one for a Sitebuilder node. For example, such a reassignment allows avoiding problems connected with possible configuration incompatibility when moving from trial to regular Sitebuilder plans (for example, templates existing in a trial plan are not included in a regular plan included in a customer subscription). To assign a trial plan, click the Select button next to the Trial Plan field. Select a new trial plan from the list that appears in the popup window. How to Reassign a Sitebuilder Node to Another Account? A Sitebuilder node can be assigned either to the Provider account or to one of reseller accounts. Such an assignment allows selling Sitebuilder services provided by this node in the Provider store or a reseller store respectively. The owner account can be selected on a node registration stage only. After the registration is finished - the owning account becomes an unchangeable property of a node. To reassign a Sitebuilder node to another account, you must unregister a node first. To this effect, click the General tab within a node properties so a node general settings appear on the screen for viewing. Then click the Delete button. This disconnects a node removes all records about a node from Parallels Business Automation - Standard database. After a node is disconnected, you can register it again and assign a new owning account. Managing Sites at a Node and Viewing Both Modules and Templates Available at a Node You can view the list of Sitebuilder sites created at a node and manage these sites under the Sites tab within a node properties. The sites listing and management options are the same as for the general list of sites available under the Sites item on the Sitebuilder Manager submenu. To get a site details, click on a site alias. Important: Troubleshooting Sitebuilder Sites If a Sitebuilder site has been occasionally broken by a customer or looks published from PCC, but a customer has problems with this site, you can synchronize a site settings with its configuration (templates, modules, etc.) stored in a customer subscription. To this effect, click the Republish button at a site details screen. The list of programs (like guestbook or photo gallery) applicable for Sitebuilder websites and available at the Sitebuilder node is shown under the Modules tab. The list of website style templates available at the node is shown under the Templates tab.
- 44. 44 Managing Parallels Business Automation - Standard Services and Data Center Parallels Business Automation - Standard fetches information about modules and templates available at Sitebuilder nodes when synchronizing the nodes. Nodes synchronization is performed automatically after registration. Further synchronization must be performed either manually or by a periodical task added into Parallels Business Automation - Standard specially for Sitebuilder nodes synchronization. After a Sitebuilder node is registered, its synchronization is performed as follows: Manually. Using the Synchronize button at a node General Settings or Configuration screen. Please keep in mind that when you edit a Sitebuilder node configuration and save it, the changes are not automatically synchronized with a node, but just saved in the Parallels Business Automation - Standard database. To synchronize changes, you need to click the Synchronize button. This is done intentionally to save your time, because if a Sitebuilder node runs many sites, synchronization may take long (an hour or more). So the idea was to let you start synchronization when you really need this. Automatically. By means of a periodical task. The periodical task synchronizes the status of all registered Sitebuilder nodes every 5 minutes and performs sites synchronization for all registered Sitebuilder nodes every 8 hours. You can change the nodes status synchronization period in Action Log - Tasks Queue. For example, if you have changed the composition of available modules or/and templates on a node, you then must manually synchronize this node to update the information about a node in Parallels Business Automation - Standard database (in other words, to let the Parallels Business Automation - Standard know about these changes) and make it possible to include both new modules and templates into Sitebuilder plans and provide these plans on a Node using Parallels Business Automation - Standard. Configuring Sitebuilder Wizard Publish Screen The Sitebuilder service is integrated with Parallels Business Automation - Standard in such a way that only Sitebuilder sites created on the Sitebuilder nodes that are registered in Parallels Business Automation - Standard can be then moved to Parallels Business Automation - Standard hosting (Virtuozzo Container, Plesk domain, or Plesk client). Thus, if a customer have created a Sitebuilder site before buying hosting at your store (for example, if a link to the Sitebuilder Wizard on one of your Sitebuilder nodes was placed to your website or your partner website, and a customer just followed this link), you can configure help messages to be shown on the last step of Sitebuilder wizard (called Publish), that will advise a customer where to go to buy hosting compatible with his/her Sitebuilder site and finally, host a site making it really available over the Internet. In addition, the lifetime of trial site will be shown. Note: The help message is not shown to customers who launch Sitebuilder Wizard from the Parallels Business Automation - Standard Control Panel since these customers already have hosting.
- 45. Managing Parallels Business Automation - Standard Services and Data Center 45 To facilitate the help messages phrasing and provide the correct links to be included in it, the message template with corresponding links is generated automatically for each Sitebuilder node registered in Parallels Business Automation - Standard and placed under the Configuration tab within a node details. Please note that message templates differ from node to node, so you must use the special message template for each node. The help messages are to be placed to the Publish screen of a Sitebuilder Wizard from the Sitebuilder original interface, the Sitebuilder Admin Control Panel. Note: The help messages are automatically sent from Parallels Business Automation - Standard to each of the registered Sitebuilder nodes. Thus, the default messages must be already in place after a Sitebuilder node synchronization. To add a help message on the Sitebuilder Wizard Publish screen on a Sitebuilder node: 1 Select the Configuration tab from the set of a Sitebuilder node details. 2 Copy the HTML message under the Message to appear on the „Publish‟ screen title. 3 Click the General tab. 4 As the Sitebuilder node general settings appear, click the Login to Sitebuilder button. This button will open the Sitebuilder Admin Control Panel for the node you are dealing with and log you in transparently with the node administrator permissions without the need for you to enter any login and password. 5 In the Sitebuilder Admin Control Panel click the Publish button located in the left frame of the Control Panel screen. The publishing parameters appear on the screen. 6 Click the Publish Screen Parameters icon. 7 Paste the help message you have copied from the Sitebuilder node Configuration screen in Parallels Business Automation - Standard into the Message to appear on the „Publish‟ screen field on the Publish Screen Parameters screen of the Sitebuilder Admin Control Panel. 8 Get back to the Parallels Business Automation - Standard Provider Control Center. Copy the HTML message under the „Publish‟ screen help message title. 9 Paste the help message into the corresponding Publish screen parameters field in the same way as this described for the Publish screen message. Note: You can add more text to this message, but we do not recommend to change the standard text. 10 Click the Apply button.
- 46. 46 Managing Parallels Business Automation - Standard Services and Data Center Managing Sitebuilder Plans A Sitebuilder plan is an add-on that can be included in hosting plans as an additional service offering. When you enable Sitebuilder for a hosting plan, you set both the setup and monthly fee, the number of websites included and price per additional website, over the included set. Sitebuilder services can be included as a special offering in the following hosting plan types: Virtuozzo Container - several websites can be provided. Plesk Client - several websites can be provided. Plesk Domain - one website can be provided. Note: For hosting plans that allow creating several Sitebuilder websites, the number of websites is limited only by a disk size and the number of websites stated for a given Plesk Client or Container. Sitebuilder plans can be added to hosting plans either during creation (if Sitebuilder services are available, the Sitebuilder related step is included into a hosting plan creation wizard) or later, under the Sitebuilder tab in hosting plan settings. The list of Sitebuilder plans displays the following: ID. A plan numerical identifier assigned to all objects in Parallels Business Automation - Standard automatically. Name. The title a plan is referred to in Parallels Business Automation - Standard. A plan name can be changed under the General (on page 48) tab in a plan settings. Pages. The maximal number of pages allowed for websites created under a plan. Modules. The number of Sitebuilder programs (modules) included in a plan. You can view the list of modules included and/or include/exclude modules to/from a plan, under the Modules (on page 48) tab in a plan settings. Templates. The number of Sitebuilder website style templates included in a plan. You can view the list of templates included and/or include/exclude templates to/from a plan, under the Templates (on page 49) tab in a plan settings. Sites. The number of westites created under a plan. To add a plan Click the New Sitebuilder Plan button. In this section: Creating Sitebuilder Plans ................................................................................. 47 Adjusting Sitebuilder Plans Configuration .......................................................... 47
- 47. Managing Parallels Business Automation - Standard Services and Data Center 47 Creating Sitebuilder Plans To add a Sitebuilder plan: 1 Enter the name of the new plan into the Name field. A plan name is just an alphanumerical identifier a plan will be referred to in Parallels Business Automation - Standard. For example, when you enable Sitebuilder for a hosting plan and select a Sitebuilder plan, you recognize a plan by this name. Note: A Sitebuilder plan name can include both lower case and upper case latin letters (a - z, A - Z), digits (0 - 9), dots, and spaces. 2 Type the maximal allowed number of site pages for sites created under this plan into the Maximum Number of Pages field. 3 Click the Save button to create a plan, or the Cancel button to return without saving. As you save a new plan, you will see the new plan properties (grouped by several tabs) on the screen and the system message saying Plan saved successfully. Do not forget to synchronize nodes. What does nodes synchronization means for a Sitebuilder plan? A newly created Sitebuilder plan does not include any Sitebuilder add-ons (special programs called modules and website pages templates). You can add these add-ons to a plan after you save it. After modules and templates are added, you must manually check which of the registered Sitebuilder nodes has the set of templates/modules included in the plan enabled. This is the way to check the actual state of affairs with Sitebuilder services availability. You can add modules or templates to Sitebuilder plans and synchronize plans with Sitebuilder nodes after a plan is created. On a plan creation stage you can only set a plan name and the number of pages for websites. Adjusting Sitebuilder Plans Configuration In respect to the settings that affect an owner of a Sitebuilder site, a Sitebuilder plan configuration consists of website number of pages limit and the set of both web programs (modules) and website style templates included in a plan. Parallels Business Automation - Standard does not support Sitebuilder plans versioning. And changes made to a Sitebuilder plan included in a hosting plan do not provoke creation of a new hosting plan version. Thus, all changes made to a Sitebuilder plan immediately affect all websites created under this plan. Please keep this in mind when changing Sitebuilder plans configuration. A Sitebuilder plan settings are grouped under four tabs: General (on page 48). A plan name and website pages limitation. Modules (on page 48). Here you can adjust the set of modules included in a plan. Templates (on page 49). Here you can adjust the set of templates included in a plan. Nodes (on page 50). Compare a plan configuration and Sitebuilder nodes service sets. Find out on what nodes services included in a plan can be provided.
- 48. 48 Managing Parallels Business Automation - Standard Services and Data Center In this section: General ............................................................................................................. 48 Modules ............................................................................................................ 48 Templates ......................................................................................................... 49 Nodes ............................................................................................................... 50 General To make changes to a plan general settings: 1 Click the Edit button under the General tab. 2 You can enter another title for the plan into the Name field. 3 Type a comment to the plan into the Description field. 4 Adjust the maximal number of pages allowed for websites created under the plan in the Maximum Number of Pages field. 5 Click the Update button to apply the changes. To cancel the operation, click the Cancel button. Modules Modules are programs (like guest book, photo gallery, etc.) available for inclusion in Sitebuilder plans. Modules are installed on a Sitebuilder nodes as RPM packages. If you see that no modules are available from Parallels Business Automation - Standard, please check if any modules are installed on a Sitebuilder node, if not, install them and make sure that modules are activated. Please, refer to the Sitebuilder documentation for details. After modules are installed and activated, synchronize a Sitebuilder node (on page 42) to pass the information about modules to Parallels Business Automation - Standard and make modules on a node visible from the Parallels Business Automation - Standard web-based interface. To make changes to the set of modules included in a plan: 1 Click the Edit button under the Modules tab. 2 Check the boxes next to the modules names to include modules in a plan or clear the boxes to disable modules for a plan. 3 Click the Update button to apply the changes. To cancel the changes, click the Cancel button.
- 49. Managing Parallels Business Automation - Standard Services and Data Center 49 Templates Templates are pre-defined website styles that can be used for quick creation of a website using Sitebuilder. Note: To know out a template style and color scheme, you can click on the Preview link located in brackets after template name. To add/remove associated templates: 1 Click the Edit button under the Templates tab. 2 Check the boxes next to the templates names to include templates in a plan or clear the boxes to disable templates for a plan. 3 Click the Update button to save changes. To return without saving, click the Cancel button.
- 50. 50 Managing Parallels Business Automation - Standard Services and Data Center Nodes Under the Nodes tab, you can view the list of all Sitebuilder nodes registered. The most important information on this screen is nodes status. This status tells you on what nodes the services included in the plan you have selected can be provided. The list of nodes displays the following: ID. A node numerical identifier assigned automatically in Parallels Business Automation - Standard. Name. A node friendly name. Status: A node status in respect to the plan you have selected: Synchronized. The plan was successfully synchronized with a node and the result was that the set of services available on a node suits (equals or wider) the set of services included in the plan. Thus, this status means that the plan can be provided on a node. Not Synchronized. The plan configuration has been changed or a plan was just created and a node „does not know‟ whether these changes alow provisioning plan services on a node or not. In this situation, try to synchronize the plan with a node. Incompatible. Synchronization has failed. The plan includes templates or/and modules that are not available on a node. In this situation, you can click the View link next to a node name and view the list of incompatible modules and/or templates in a popup window. After this you can adjust templates/modules configuration either in the plan, or on a node and then try to synchronize the plan with this node again. To synchronize plans and nodes: 1 Check the boxes next to the names of nodes you want to synchronize the plan with. 2 Click the Synchronize button. Note: The operation will be applied to selected nodes only. If there are no valid nodes or nothing is selected for synchronization, a warning message appears. Managing Sitebuilder Sites All Sitebuilder websites created on all Sitebuilder nodes registered in Parallels Business Automation - Standard are shown under the Sites item on the Sitebuilder Manager submenu. You can view, activate/deactivate sites on the Sitebuilder server. You can search sites by ID, Code, Domain, Account ID, and Subscription. Sites can be filtered by Type and status (Active/Inactive). The information about the sites created on a Sitebuilder node using the original Sitebuilder Admin Control Panel or using other tools different from Parallels Business Automation - Standard is fetched during node synchronization. The list of Sitebuilder sites displays the following:
- 51. Managing Parallels Business Automation - Standard Services and Data Center 51 ID. The numerical identifier assigned automatically to a site in Parallels Business Automation - Standard. Site Alias. A site code assigned by Sitebuilder. This code is called site alias in terms of Sitebuilder. Node. The friendly name of Sitebuilder node a site is hosted on. Vendor. The name of Sitebuilder administrator or reseller (registered directly on a Sitebuilder node) that officially provides a site. Plan. The name of Parallels Business Automation - Standard Sitebuilder plan, under which a site was created. N/A means that a site was created outside Parallels Business Automation - Standard (e.g., using the Sitebuilder Admin Control Panel) and is not related to any of Sitebuilder plans existing in Parallels Business Automation - Standard. Domain. The hostname of Container or Plesk domain or client a site is hosted on. N/A means that a site was created, but not reassigned to Parallels Business Automation - Standard hosting yet. Account name. The name of Parallels Business Automation - Standard account owning a site. Trial. A site type. In Sitebuilder all sites are trial first. A trial site has a valid code and can be filled with content using Sitebuilder wizard, but cannot be published. To be published, a Sitebuilder site must have the regular type. Parallels Business Automation - Standard automatically turns trial sites into regular after the corresponding order is paid. Red cross in this column means that a site is regular, green tick means that a site is trial. Status. A site status in respect to Sitebuilder services. Can be one of the following: Active. Sitebuilder can be launched for this site and all operations over a site are available. Disabled. Sitebuilder cannot be launched for a site. Site management is suspended. Important: Troubleshooting Sitebuilder Sites If a Sitebuilder site provisioning has failed because of some temporal problems at a Sitebuilder node (node unavailability, temporarily dns problem, etc.) it is possible to manually restart site provisioning. In this case, a site settings are synchronized with its configuration (templates, modules, etc.) stored in a customer subscription. To this effect, click the Republish button at a site details screen. To view site settings click on a Site ID or Site Alias. The site details appear on the screen. You can deactivate a site by clicking the Deactivate button. Note: For Sitebuilder versions starting from 3.x.x the selected sites deactivation is not supported. Thus for sites created on Sitebuilder 3.x.x the Deactivate button is not shown. For such sites it is possible to deactivate a Sitebuilder user, which deactivates all sites this user owns. To view details on Account owning a site, click the account information link. You will be taken to Top > Account Director > Customer Manager. To view detailed information about a Subscription that includes a Sitebuilder site, click the subscription information link.
- 52. 52 Managing Parallels Business Automation - Standard Services and Data Center Managing Dedicated Servers Dedicated servers that run some third-party software (different from Virtuozzo or Plesk) are managed separately in Parallels Business Automation - Standard using a special set of tools for dedicated hosting services provisioning including the following: Creation of hosting plans for dedicated hosting offerings. Such a hosting plan defines the following server properties: Both setup and recurring fees for service. The scheme for traffic accounting by classes. Number and prices for static IP addresses that can be assigned to a server. Server configuration and available upgrades for a customer can be outlined using custom attributes (for RAM, disk space, etc.) assigned to a hosting plan. In addition, it is possible to sell different application licenses at a separate fees. Dedicated servers registration in Parallels Business Automation - Standard, which allows saving the most general properties of a server in the Parallels Business Automation - Standard database and, when the corresponding order is placed and paid by a customer, creating a dedicated subscription for a particular server. Dedicated servers grouping by Data centers and racks in each Data Center. In addition it is possible to group servers by switches used. Dedicated servers management tools are grouped under Servers Manager of the Service Director. In this section: Activating Dedicated Server Subscription .......................................................... 53
- 53. Managing Parallels Business Automation - Standard Services and Data Center 53 Activating Dedicated Server Subscription To activate the Dedicated subscription go to the Service Director - Servers Manager - Dedicated Servers. Dedicated server subscriptions can be activated only manually. Say, you have created and offered in your store the dedicated hosting plan for such a server. When a customer places and pays an order for this hosting plan, the subscription is automatically created in Parallels Business Automation - Standard. This subscription is in the Pending state, because it awaits for particular dedicated server assignment. In hosting plans, dedicated servers configuration is defined by custom attribute values specified for a hosting plan (on page 166). When you assign a dedicated server to a subscription, Parallels Business Automation - Standard automatically checks every item of a corresponding order in respect to an ordered server configuration and in case an ordered configuration does not match an assigned server configuration, Parallels Business Automation - Standard warns you. In this case, you can check the available dedicated servers configuration, if needed, upgrade or downgrade one of them to match the ordered configuration, then adjust the dedicated server registration parameters in Parallels Business Automation - Standard or register a server and after this, try to activate a dedicated subscription once again. Advanced custom attributes system and dedicated servers configuration auto-check during subscription activation considerably facilitates dedicated hosting provisioning: All third-party servers in your data center can be accounted and registered in Parallels Business Automation - Standard database in accordance with servers actual location and configuration. Automated server configuration check during dedicated subscription activation facilitates dedicated servers assignment and servers accounting. Automated billing for dedicated hosting upgrade: You can specify a dedicated server configuration in hosting plan and allow a customer to select each parameter within a certain range during initial purchase and later order upgrade or downgrade for his/her dedicated server by selecting one or another option in a corresponding custom attribute (disk space, RAM, etc.). If a hardware Node was not registered yet, then register it. Select a Hardware Node and edit its General Settings: assign an owner account and create a subscription (or assign a server to existing subscription). If an assigned server configuration does not match an ordered configuration, Parallels Business Automation - Standard allows assigning a server anyway, but leaves a server in Not Synchronized status till a server configuration will be brought in correspondence with an ordered configuration. Managing Nodes by Groups
- 54. 54 Managing Parallels Business Automation - Standard Services and Data Center Servers (also referred as nodes) registered in Parallels Business Automation can be united into groups for better management. Such grouping provides an additional way to assign nodes for services provisioning (per hosting plan) and allocate IP addresses. IP addresses allocation is associated with nodes groups by assigning an IP pool to a nodes group, in the same way as an IP pool can be allocated to a type of hosting. In addition, you can group nodes by location (datacenters, etc.). Nodes are grouped by types. Only nodes of the same type can be included in a group. It is possible to create as many nodes groups as needed. First you create a group and then add (remove) nodes into (from) it. To add a nodes group: 1 Open the Service Director submenu, expand the Manager folder that corresponds to type of nodes you want to group (Plesk, Virtuozzo, Servers). Select Node Groups. 2 Click New Node Group. Fill the form: a Type a group name into the Name field. This is the name the group will be referred to when associating with hosting plan or IP pool. b Type a short description of the group into the Description field. c Enter a free-form comment into the Comment field. 3 Click Save. As a group is created, you can add or remove nodes, or remove this group. Removing a group cancels nodes logical grouping. To add node to group: 1 Click on a group name. 2 Switch to the Nodes tab. 3 Click Add Nodes. The list of all the nodes that belong to the type you have selected appears on the screen. 4 Select the nodes you want to add by checking the box next to nodes‟ names. 5 Click Add Nodes.
- 55. Managing Parallels Business Automation - Standard Services and Data Center 55 Selling Licenses Parallels Business Automation - Standard allows selling Parallels Plesk Control Panel, Parallels Plesk Sitebuilder, Parallels Virtuozzo Container, and some other types of licenses as a part of services included in the following types of hosting plans: Dedicated node. Dedicated Plesk server. Virtuozzo Container (in case a hosting plan includes the Plesk Server Administrator application). A Virtuozzo Container behaves like a Plesk server, but is not registered in Parallels Business Automation - Standard as a Plesk node. Plesk Server in Virtuozzo Container (Plesk Virtual Node). A Virtuozzo Container behaves like a Plesk server, and is registered in Parallels Business Automation - Standard as a Plesk node. Miscellaneous. The special plug-in for licenses issuing (Parallels Key Administrator) that can be installed similarly to the other plug-ins makes it possible to request licenses on a customer order. The plug-in can be configured both for working in online and offline mode. The requisites and keys necessary for Parallels Key Administrator (Parallels KA) to work online are issued by Parallels. Depending on a HSP needs, Parallels can issue a special key for a particular license class or for a number of license classes. Tools for license services management are grouped under the Service Director - License Manager. The list of licenses classes available for the Parallels partner if shown under the License Manager - Licenses. In this section: Managing Key Administrator Plug-Ins................................................................ 56 Selecting License Classes to Provide ................................................................ 58 Managing Licenses ........................................................................................... 60
- 56. 56 Managing Parallels Business Automation - Standard Services and Data Center Managing Key Administrator Plug-Ins To use the Parallels Key Administrator services, please, contact your vendor and complete a client agreement to get the Parallels Key Administrator client login. Using this login, you can log in to the Parallels Key Administrator GUI and manage your licenses and this login is also used to set up the Key Administrator plug-in that allows requesting licenses online. Note: There can be different Parallels Key Administrator client logins that allow issuing licenses of different classes. If you have different client logins and if you want to sell different license classes using the Parallels Business Automation - Standard tools, then you should configure several KA plug-in configurations. The KA plug-in can be configured both for online licenses issuing and manual licenses upload. You can configure a number of KA plug-ins. However, to sell licenses, it is required to configure at least one plug-in, because configuring a KA plug-in is the only way to define the set of license classes you will sell. Immediately after a KA plug-in configuration is saved, Parallels Business Automation - Standard starts executing a special task that fetches the list of license classes. Only after the list of license classes is fetched a KA plug-in is considered as configured and gets a „Configured‟ status, i.e., ready for use. The list of license classes is available for every KA plug-in below the License Classes and Properties tab. For offline KA plug-in configurations the list of license classes is taken from the Parallels Business Automation - Standard database and thus, it is the same for any offline KA plug-in configuration. This list of license classes includes the full set of license types the Parallels KA provides, so after the list of license classes is fetched, it is necessary to do a post-configuration and select the license classes to sell in accordance with the client agreement completed with Parallels Key Administrator. For online KA plug-in configurations the list of license classes is requested online directly from the KA server and since a client requisites are passed to KA, the returned list of license classes corresponds to a client permissions stated in a client agreement. Thus, for online KA plug-ins additional check and post-configuration of the license classes list is possible but not necessary. To add a new KA plug-in configuration, click the New plug-in button. The list of KA plug-ins displays the following: ID. A numerical identifier assigned to a KA plug-in configuration in the Parallels Business Automation - Standard database. Plug-in name. The KA plug-in configuration name assigned in Parallels Business Automation - Standard. A pug-in is referred Configured. This column shows whether a KA plug-in is ready for use or not: - A plug-in is ready for use, all the necessary data is entered and saved, the list of license classes is fetched.
- 57. Managing Parallels Business Automation - Standard Services and Data Center 57 - A plug-in is not ready for use. Either some data is missing in a plug-in configuration, or (for online plug-is) no connection with KA server, or the list of license classes is not fetched.
- 58. 58 Managing Parallels Business Automation - Standard Services and Data Center Selecting License Classes to Provide A „License Class‟ is a particular version of a particular licensed product. For example, Plesk 7.5 Reloaded ™. Licenses are issued in the frame of a license class, starting from a single license and up to a license pack that includes several identical licenses. After all the data necessary for new Parallels Key Administrator (KA) plug-in configuration is saved, Parallels Business Automation - Standard starts executing a special task that fetches the list of license classes allowed for this particular plug-in. Only after the list of license classes is fetched a KA plug-in is considered as configured and gets a „Configured‟ status, i.e., ready for use. The list of license classes appears under the License Classes and Properties tab within a plug-in configuration settings. The set of license classes is read-only in respect to the number of license classes, their composition and each class properties. For offline Parallels Key Administrator (KA) plug-in configurations the set of license classes available is taken from the Parallels Business Automation - Standard database and in this case, the license classes list normally includes all license classes available at Parallels KA. For offline KA plug-ins you must manually select the license classes to sell, in accordance with the client agreement you have completed with Parallels KA. For offline KA plug-in configurations the set of license classes available can be changed (for example, new classes can be added to the list) by installing a simple upgrade. The upgrade is developed and conducted by Parallels. For online KA plug-in configurations the set of license classes available is fetched online after a plug-in is configured from the KA server and in this case, the set of license classes will automatically correspond to your KA client agreement, because it is checked by your client login and password. Online KA plug-in configuration allows updating the list of license classes online. In this case, if Parallels Key Administrator has started supporting new license classes, they appear in the list, and if some license classes support has been discontinued, such license classes are removed from the list. Existing configuration of license classes availability stays without changes. To update the list of license classes online, use the Reconfigure button located below the list of license classes. You can enable a license class to make it possible to include the corresponding licenses in hosting plans and sell them. Please note that only enabled license classes can be included in hosting plans. Each license class can include a variety of license types (for example, different number of domains for Plesk licenses), additional features, and additional keys. Additional keys are complementary licenses that can be sold together with license that belongs to a license class. A license class configuration with all its features and additional keys (if any) is visible from hosting plan settings, under the Licenses tab or at the „Licenses‟ step in a hosting plan creation wizard. To make licenses of a particular class available for sale: 1 Select Service Director - License Manager - Plug-Ins. The list of all configured KA plug-ins appears on the screen.
- 59. Managing Parallels Business Automation - Standard Services and Data Center 59 2 Click on the name of the KA plug-in you would like to configure license classes for. 3 As the KA plug-in settings appear on the screen, click on the License Classes and Properties tab. Note: If you have selected a KA plug-in configured to get licenses online, the list of license classes can be updated online. To this effect, click the Reconfigure button located at the bottom of the list. Offline KA plug-ins do not have such a button. 4 Scroll the list of license classes that appears on the screen up to the end and click the Edit button. 5 To allow a license class for selling, check the box next to a license class name. To disable a license class for hosting plans, clear the box next to a license class name. 6 To save changes, click the Update button.
- 60. 60 Managing Parallels Business Automation - Standard Services and Data Center Managing Licenses Licenses provisioning scheme is the following: Customer orders a hosting plan with license in store and pays the order. After this, subscription creation starts. At the same moment, a license file image called license request is added to the Parallels Business Automation - Standard database. A license request contains all the information about an ordered license. A license request is submitted to Parallels Key Administrator to get a license key and after this, a license file(s). In the course of an order completion, License(s) provisioning is the last thing, it starts after all the other services included in a subscription are ready for use. Online licenses issuing is a quick procedure in case the Parallels Key Administrator (KA) server is available. A KA plug-in sends a license request to the (KA) server. In return, the KA server issues a license key (a license alphanumerical identifier) and sends is to the plug-in. Then, using an issued license key, the KA server generates a license file and sends it to Parallels Business Automation - Standard. Finally, the KA plug-in tries to install a license into a customer subscription. In case installation fails, provider can install a license file for a customer manually. In case licenses are uploaded manually, provider can view license requests in the list. Then provider clicks on a license request ID and gets a license request details displayed. After this, a license key(s) and file(s) can be uploaded manually to the Parallels Business Automation - Standard database. Finally, provider manually installs a license into a customer subscription. Licenses are displayed in a list below a tab where the name of KA plug-in used to issue these licenses is shown. If you use several KA plug-ins, then licenses are collected into a several lists below several tabs, grouped by plug-ins used for issuing. To upload or request a new license (on page 62), click the New License button. The list of licenses displays the following: ID. The numerical identifier assigned to a license in the Parallels Business Automation - Standard database. ID is assigned from the moment when a license request appears. Key Number. A license identifier issued by Parallels Key Administrator. If a license key number is not shown, this means that only a license request presents. A license key can be issued by a license request. Subscription. If a license is assigned to a customer subscription, then this subscription name is shown. If no subscription shown, then a license is unused. If the Not Assigned is displayed in the Subscription column, this means that a license has been ordered for a subscription of Dedicated Server type, but this subscription is still in the Pending state awaiting for manual assignment of a dedicated server. License Class. The name and version of a licensed software. There may be a variety of license types for a particular software product, for example Plesk licenses with different number of domains or clients or Virtuozzo licenses with different number of Containers. That is why software type is called as License Class.
- 61. Managing Parallels Business Automation - Standard Services and Data Center 61 Status. A license current status tells what has been done to a license and what can be done to it at the moment. A license possible statuses are: Pending. Only a license request is stored in the Parallels Business Automation - Standard database. There is neither a license key, nor a license file. First, a license key is to be obtained. To get a license key, click on a license request ID. After a license request details appear on the screen, click the Issue License button. Issued. A license key is issued and is stored in the Parallels Business Automation - Standard database. There is no license file yet. To get a license file, click on a license ID. After a license details appear on the screen, click the Retrieve button. Retrieved. A license file(s) (together with a license key) is in the Parallels Business Automation - Standard database. A license file is ready for passing to a customer or for sale, if there is no order for a license. However, a license file is still at the Management Node. It is possible to download it at your local computer. To this effect, click on a license ID. After a license details appear on the screen, click the Download to Desktop button. After a license file is downloaded, it can be manually passed to a customer or installed into a customer subscription. In addition, there is an intermediate status Retrieving. It means that a license retrieval is in process. Normally, this status occurs for a very short time. However, if something impedes a license retrieval process, for example, connection between KA plug-in and KA server is broken, then a license may stay in the Retrieving status for some time. Terminated. A license is cancelled at the Parallels KA side. This status only means that a license is marked as terminated at the Parallels KA side. There is no online tools for licenses termination in customers subscriptions. Uploaded. A license is manually uploaded into the Parallels Business Automation - Standard database using the offline KS plug-in. Installed. A license is installed in a customer subscription. There is an additional status Installing. It means that a license is in process of installation into a customer subscription. Expired. A license has been issued using the Monthly bill type and its expiration period is over. Expired licenses cannot be used anymore. Activated. This status occurs for licenses (some Sitebuilder and Virtuozzo versions) that require activation after a license key is issued. Such licenses can be retrieved only after activation. Bill Type. How a license is to be paid. Can be one of the following: Monthly. License is purchased for the period of one month with one-month Parallels‟s Software Update Service (SUS), i.e. the ability of upgrading a license. Monthly payment is required, if a subscription is not renewed in time, license(s) are deactivated and cannot be sold to customers. Purchase. Licenses are purchased for an unlimited period with one-time payment and one year SUS. In this case, licenses never expire. In this section: Uploading Licenses ........................................................................................... 62
- 62. 62 Managing Parallels Business Automation - Standard Services and Data Center Uploading Licenses A new licence is added in the two steps. After you click the New License button at the screen showing the list of Licenses, first you select the product you would like to get a new license for, in other words, you select a License Class. Then you select a license capacity. Selecting a License Class The list of License Classes that appears at the screen corresponds to the set of License classes allowed for the KA plug-in you use to request a license. 1 Set the option button to the product you would like to get a new license for. It is possible to select only one License Class, but several licenses of this class can be ordered. 2 Enter the number of licenses of the selected License Class you want to request into the Number of Licenses field located below the list of License Classes. 3 Click the Next button. Specifying a new license capacity Licenses of each License Class have a particular configuration settled by the issuer - the Parallels Key Administrator. For offline KA plug-ins licenses configuration is fetched from the Parallels Business Automation - Standard database, and for online KA plug-ins it is taken online from the Parallels Key Administrator server. Depending on a License class (i.e., a licensed product), a license configuration differs. Some licenses are a single file without any additional features, other licenses may be of a different capacity (for example, Parallels Plesk Control Panel license may be for different number of domains, Virtuozzo licenses may be for different number of Containers) and include a number of additional features, a license may also include additional license keys (gameserver or anti-virus) and a number of additional features may be available both as a standalone services and in the frame of one of another additional license key. Additional license keys are separate licenses, but they are included in a basic license and shipped together with it. Additional keys and features are sold as included or complementary services in the frame of a license. Prices and conditions for licenses and additional keys/features are specified per hosting plan. 1 The settings related to the basic license are grouped at the License Properties bar. Specify a license capacity (if any variants are at your choice). a Set the option button to a needed capacity. b If any additional features are available for the license, check the boxes next to the features names to request the license with these features. If you do not need a feature in the license, leave the box next to its name clear. 2 If any additional licenses are available with the basic license, then the options related to each additional license key is brought to a separate bar and a licensed product name if written on this bar.
- 63. Managing Parallels Business Automation - Standard Services and Data Center 63 a To include an additional license key into a basic license, check the box next to the licenses product name. If you do not include an additional license into the basic one, leave the box clear. b If any additional features are available with the additional license key, these features are specified below the licensed product name. To include an additional feature in the basic license you are going to request, check the box next to a feature name, otherwise - leave this box clear. If an additional license has its own capacity, then set the option button to the needed capacity in the same way as for the basic license. 3 To request a new license, click the Issue License button.
- 64. 64 Managing Parallels Business Automation - Standard Services and Data Center Allocating IP Addresses Note: This section describes the IP addresses management available from the Provider Control Center. The special paragraph is devoted to IP addresses management for Resellers, using the Reseller Control Center. The IP addresses assets assigned to the Parallels Business Automation - Standard cluster are managed by groups (IP pools). Provider can add IP pools using the Service Director - IP Manager. The IP Manager allows you to automate the configuration of IP address properties such as addresses of the DNS servers and default gateways for Containers. You can define only static allocation within each IP pool. Static IP addresses are allocated permanently and can be released only manually. Using the IP Manager you can track the usage of IP addresses in the frame of services provided. The list of leases is provided for each IP pool. This list shows which Containers are using particular IP addresses. To restrict usage of certain IP addresses within an IP pool, you can create exclusions that cover a single IP address or series of IP addresses. IP pools can be assigned to specific resellers or hardware nodes or types of hosting: Assigning an IP pool to a specific type of hosting means that IP addresses from this IP pool will be used for provisioning of particular type of services. This assignment is exclusive, i.e., it is not possible to assign an IP pool to several types of hosting. You can allocate an IP pool for: Virtuozzo Containers. Name-based Virtuozzo Containers. Plesk Domain hosting. Dedicated servers. Assigning an IP pool to a reseller means that customers of this reseller will use IP addresses from the IP pool assigned. Assigning an IP pool to a Hardware Node means that IP addresses from the IP pool assigned will be allocated, for example, to Containers hosted on this Hardware Node only.This is extremely useful if you have different network segments in your infrastructure. In this case, you can assign particular IP pools to corresponding Hardware Nodes in segment. In case Containers will be migrated from one Hardware Node to another, IP addresses will be reassigned automatically. Assigning an IP pool to a group of nodes means that IP addresses from the IP pool assigned will be allocated, for example, to Containers hosted on nodes included in this group.
- 65. Managing Parallels Business Automation - Standard Services and Data Center 65 Supervising Service Level The Service Level Manager provides a mechanism for checking the current resource utilization throughout Containers and Hardware Nodes. Using the Service Director - Service Level Manager, you can: View the both the current resources consumption and the resources usage history for every Container or every Hardware Node. Go to the Service Director - Service Level Manager. Select Virtuozzo Container or Hardware Nodes. For every Container or Hardware Node you an view the current resources usage (the Current Values tab) or resource usage history (Statistics tab). This feature is very useful if, for example your customer believes that some resource was under-delivered. In this case you can settle a customer‟s doubts by checking the total resource usage during a particular period and daily or hourly consumption for a given period of time. View traffic usage statistics for third-party dedicated servers. Set the thresholds in percents for disk space and traffic that when exceeded are reported into the list of Containers that are approaching limits. To this effect, go to the Service Level Manager - Setup. To view the list of Containers that have exceeded the threshold percentage of promised disk space and traffic, select Container approaching limit. Note: When traffic or disk space usage for a Container approaches the limits set in the Service Level Manager, the corresponding event is registered by the Parallels Business Automation - Standard Event Manager (namely, Traffic is nearly used up and Disk space is nearly used up, to find these events, filter the list by the Subscription object type). Thus, you can attach an action to such events, for example, e-mail notification or SMS message to your staff member. Finally, you can configure traffic accounting by classes in the Service Director - Service Level Manager - Traffic Classes.
- 66. 66 Managing Parallels Business Automation - Standard Services and Data Center Configuring Traffic Classes The Parallels Business Automation - Standard service level management tools allow you to track the inbound and outbound network traffic for Plesk clients and domains, Containers, and physical dedicated servers. In order to provide the ability to distinguish between domestic and international traffic, a concept of network classes is introduced. It is important to fully understand this notion, because network classes IDs are used in the values of some network traffic parameters. A network class is a range of IP addresses for which traffic is counted and charged. Parallels Business Automation - Standard allows having up to 15 different network classes specified. Each class can contain one or more IP address ranges. Classes 1 and 2 have special meanings. Class 1 defines the IP address range for which no accounting is done. Usually, it corresponds to the Virtuozzo Hardware Node subnet (the Node itself and its Containers). Setting up Class 1 is not required; however, its correct setup improves performance. Class 2 is defined to match any IP address. It must be always present in the network classes definition file. Other classes should be defined after Class 2. They represent exceptions from the “matching-everything” rule of Class 2. Traffic classes IDs are assigned automatically and cannot be changed later. Important: A traffic class configuration must be passed to a Hardware Node and stored there in a special network configuration file, so a Hardware Node could „know‟ what traffic data must be accounted and passed to Parallels Business Automation - Standard. The procedure of passing a traffic class to a Hardware Node is called „Synchronization‟. Virtuozzo for Unix allows accounting traffic by all the traffic classes, and Plesk as well as Virtuozzo for Windows allow accounting the overall traffic only, i.e., by the Class 2. Please keep in mind that a traffic class must be synchronized with a Node to make traffic accounting by this class possible. Traffic classes synchronization can be initiated using the Synchronize traffic classes button at the traffic classes list screen, or its current synchronization state can be checked at the Synchronization details tab within a traffic class details. The tools for traffic classes management are grouped under the Service Director - Service Level Manager - Traffic Classes. The order of traffic accounting follows the order of traffic classes in the list shown at the Traffic Classes screen. Note: Traffic accounting by classes can be set for all hosting plan types (except Miscellaneous and Domain Registration). For all types of Virtuozzo Unix hosting plans (Container, Dedicated Virtuozzo server, Plesk server in Container) and dedicated hosting all traffic classes are applicable. For Plesk (Dedicated Plesk Server, Plesk Client, Plesk Domain) and Virtuozzo for Windows hosting plan types only Class 2 is applicable. To add a network class:
- 67. Managing Parallels Business Automation - Standard Services and Data Center 67 1 Click Traffic Classes on the Service Level Manager submenu. The list of all traffic classes appears on the screen. 2 Click the Add Traffic Class button. 3 Fill the form that appears: a Enter the traffic class friendly name into the Traffic Class Name field. b To perform the traffic accounting by the class and make it possible to define the traffic accounting by this class for hosting plans, you need to enable the traffic class by checking the Enabled box. c You can add a free-form comment into the Description field. 4 Click the OK button. The newly created traffic class properties appear on the screen. They display all the data entered for the class plus one more property - the used field. This field shows whether a class is used in hosting plan(s) or not (green tick -yes, used, red cross - not used). If a traffic class is used in at least one hosting plan, it cannot be deleted. 5 Click the IP Ranges tab to define the range(s) of IP addresses to be accounted. 6 Click the Add IP range button. 7 Fill the form that appears: a Type the starting IP address into the IP range and the netmask in the bit form into the Range prefix field. b You can add the detailed description of the IP range into the Description field. 8 Click the OK button.
- 68. CHAPTER 6 Setting Up Domains Registration This chapter advises how to start registering domains online and make the most general settings necessary for a successful domain registration. The daily tasks connected with the domain management are described later in this guide. In this chapter: How to Start Registering Domains Online.......................................................... 69 Configuring Domain Registration Plug-Ins ......................................................... 69 Top Level Domains Assignment ........................................................................ 70 Setting Registrar Prices ..................................................................................... 71 Allowing Domain Transfer Per Registrar TLDs .................................................. 74 Configuring Default Records for Zone Files (DNS Templates) ........................... 74 Specifying Name Server Sets ............................................................................ 76 Registering Internationalized Domain Names .................................................... 76 Managing Contacts Used for Domain Registration ............................................ 77 Specifying Whois Servers .................................................................................. 78 Viewing Incoming and Outgoing Domain Registration E-mails .......................... 80
- 69. Setting Up Domains Registration 69 How to Start Registering Domains Online Parallels Business Automation - Standard allows establishing connection with Internet Registrars via the pluggable modules (plug-ins). To configure domain registration plug-ins, please register your reseller account with the corresponding Registrars and obtain all the necessary pre-requisites. After this, you can go to the Service Director - Domain Manager - Plug-Ins and configure domain plug-ins. To register a domain manually, from the Provider Control Center, select Service Director - Domain Manager - Domains - New Domain button. You can assign both the default domain and the domain used for trial subscriptions (for customers to create subdomains), as well as use the other advanced domain settings. Configuring Domain Registration Plug-Ins For the fresh Parallels Business Automation - Standard installation, Parallels Inc. offers a set of plug-ins for establishing a connection with the domain registrars, so you just have to key in the necessary information into simple forms. Please note that in this case, you should open the Account with the registrars where you want to register your domains and receive your own logins, private keys and other data, depending on the Registrar‟s internal rules. Domain registration plug-ins are shipped as RPM modules independent from Parallels Business Automation - Standard functionality. After installation, a plug-in becomes available in Parallels Business Automation - Standard as a selectable type for a new domain registration plug-in configuration. To add a domain registration plug-in based on one of a standard configurations, it is enough to go to Service Director > Domain Manager > Plug-ins, click New Plug-in, enter a new plug-in configuration name and select a configuration type. After this, a plug-in configuration form appears on the screen. The only thing to do after this - fill the form and save the configuration. The number of plug-ins that can be added on the basis of the same standard configuration is not limited. Note1: The Parallels Business Automation - Standard installation owner defiles the set of domain registration plug-ins available for each reseller. The list of domain registration plug-ins (to domain registries and registrars) shipped with Parallels Business Automation - Standard is available at the Parallels official website (http://www.parallels.com/en/products/hspcomplete/templates/domain). Note2: If you are planning to use OpenSRS services for the online domain registration, then Port 55000 for OpenSRS (horizon.opensrs.net) should be opened on the Management Node. In the case if you intend to use eNom services for the online domain registration, then Port 80 for eNom should be opened on the Management Node (the host should be agreed with eNom).
- 70. 70 Setting Up Domains Registration Please, make sure that the RPM packages necessary for online domains registration are installed (refer to the Parallels Business Automation - Standard Installation Guide). You can view the Plug-in lookup state in the Domain lookup mode field of the Plugin Setup window. The mode may be as follows: registrar API is used for lookup (green indicator) WHOIS lookup is used; all plug-in‟s TLDs are assigned to some WHOIS (green indicator) WHOIS lookup is used; and some TLDs are not assigned to any WHOIS (yellow indicator); TLDs which are not assigned to WHOIS servers are listed in „Comment‟ field WHOIS lookup is used; no TLDs are assigned to WHOIS servers (red indicator) Note: Many registrars accept requests from known hosts only and require that you specify the client IP address (i.e, your Management Node IP address) in your account profile. Please, clarify this issue with registrars‟ support before you start using a domain plug-in. Important: The ability for resellers to use the own configuration of domain plug-ins is defined in Reseller Configuration. Reseller Configuration can be assigned in reseller account General Settings. Top Level Domains Assignment You have already configured (on page 69) one or more domain registration plug-ins. Before activating domain plug-ins and start registering domains, it is necessary to correctly configure the set of Top Level Domains (TLDs, like .com, .net, org, etc) available for domains registration for each domain plug-in, i.e., specify what TLDs supported by each registrar. Since the set of TLDs supported by one or another Registrar can change (new TLDs can be added or some TLDs can be cancelled by a Registrar), TLDs can be manually added or removed for each domain registration plug-in. Provider can change the TLDs set for domain plug-ins in an arbitrary manner. Thus, Provider is finally responsible for correct TLDs assignment. The same TLD can be assigned to a number of domain registration plug-ins, which allows saving in Parallels Business Automation - Standard the conditions of domain registration in the same TLD offered by a number of registrars. A registrar that will actually provide domain registration in one or another TLD can be selected per domain registration hosting plan. When you change registrar in a hosting plan, customers who have already registered domains with a previous registrar keep using their domains on the same conditions and new customers start registering domains with a newly set registrar. Thus, changes in a domain registration hosting plan is not followed with creation of a hosting plan version.
- 71. Setting Up Domains Registration 71 In a few words, the scheme of TLDs assignment in Parallels Business Automation - Standard is the following: 1 Go to Service Director - Domain Manager - Plug-Ins. 2 Select a plug-in. 3 Select the Prices tab from a plug-in settings. Note: For plug-ins that support the online prices update, the Update Prices button is shown below the list of TLDs. You can click this button and get the prices online. For other plug-ins you must know out the actual registrar prices and enter them manually. 4 Click the New TLD button. 5 Enter a new TLD name and select a plug-in (i.e., a registrar). (Select a plug-in you want to add TLD(s) for. Click Next. 6 Specify the conditions of domains registration. Click Update. Note: You can add the same TLD(s) to several Registrars and then select an active registrar in hosting plan settings. For the registrars that do not support the online prices update it is only possible to manually enter your retail prices: Contact a Registrar and know out the prices. Then go to Operations Director - Domain Manager - Plugins, select the plug-in and then select the Prices tab. Click on the TLD name and type your own retail prices. Setting Registrar Prices Prices for domain registration are set per registrar. After you set registrar prices, a TLD is considered as configured for a given registrar and you can select the corresponding plug-in as supporting registry for a TLD in hosting plans. To set prices for a TLD, select a plug-in, select the Prices tab, and then click on a TLD name or click the New TLD button. To set the registrar prices: 1 Select registration periods available and set prices: a To allow domain registration period, check the box next to the period name. To mark a period as not supported, clear this box. Only supported registration periods are shown in domain registration hosting plans TLD settings. As you check the box next to a registration period the fields where you can enter prices become activated. b For each supported period, enter a registrar‟s one-time fee for domain registration into the Registration cost field and enter the registrar‟s recurring fee into the Renewal cost field.
- 72. 72 Setting Up Domains Registration 2 Adjust the domains Transfer Settings. To allow transferring domains registered in the selected TLD and enable the form fields where you can enter your retail price for the transfer, check the Allow domain transfers box. To disallow transfer, clear this box. As you allow transfer, the fields where you can enter transfer prices become activated: a Enter the registrar‟s one-time fee for domain transfer service into the Transfer cost field. b Transfer includes domain renewal. To renew domain registration under this registrar right after a domain is transferred, select the renewal period from the Period drop-down menu. In case of transfer, your prices set in hosting plan for domain renewal will be applied. 3 Set the domain Renewal Limitations: a If the registrar allows domain renewal at any moment without respect to the time remaining before registration period is over, set the option button to Renewal is allowed at any time. b If the registrar regulates domain renewal time frame, check the relevant box to select the condition: If the registrar allows domain renewal only after a particular time has passed after domain registration, check the not earlier than _ days after domain registration date box and enter the period in days. If the registrar allows domains renewal only when a particular time remains before registration period is over, check the not earlier than _ days before domain registration date box and enter the period in days. If the registrar allows domains renewal after a domain registration period is over only during several days, check the not later than_ days after domain expiration date box and enter the period in days. 4 Specify the DNS zone startup settings: a Create DNS zone before domain registration. This option is required for correct domain registration processing for some registrars, which start checking a customer name servers right after a domain registration request is received. In this case, if a customer have his/her name servers not configured properly by the moment of domain registration order placement, a registrar sends an error response. If this option is enabled (the box is checked) then a zone file is created in Parallels Business Automation - Standard before sending a domain registration request to a registrar. Name servers synchronization process starts automatically and Parallels Business Automation - Standard periodically checks name servers in respect to their readiness to resolve a domain. A zone file is checked several times with a certain period and these settings can be adjusted specially. In case the check fails a corresponding record specifying the number of failed attempt and the period when the next check is to be performed is added to the Action Log. In case a check is successful (i.e., name servers are ready to serve a domain), the registration request is sent to registrar. As soon as you check this box the fields where you can enter DNS startup and check limit become activated. b DNS zone startup time limit. This option limits the overall time that can be used for name servers readiness check. If the time is over and name servers are not ready (zone file is still not created), then domain registration request is sent without respect to a zone file creation. Please enter the time limit in minutes.
- 73. Setting Up Domains Registration 73 c The number of attempts to check DNS zone. The overall number of attempts Parallels Business Automation - Standard performs to check the name server readiness. The checks frequency is calculated automatically, in a nonlinear way, taking in account some specific features of the synchronization process. 5 Use your contacts for customer‟s domains registration. Here you can specify what contact information will be asked during domain registration at a given Registrar in a TLD you have selected. The value of contact data required and its format considerably differs depending on Registrar. Some Registrars require a rather specific data. To simplify domain registration procedure for your customers, you can replace Registrar‟s contacts form with your own one (a so called base contacts) that have a standard format. You can create your contacts (up to 10 for one account name) under Domain Manager > Setup > Contacts tab. All of the contacts created by you are included in the drop- down menus next to contacts‟ names. The number and names of contacts offered here may vary depending on a Registrar. The most typical set is Owner Contact, Administrative Contact, Billing Contact, and Technical Contact. To create a new contact, click the Create new button. A new contact will be available for selection for all contact types right after you save it. To create a new contact on the basis of an existing one, select a contact you want to base upon from the drop-down menu. The Create copy button activates. Click the Create copy button. The contact form appears. Adjust the contact data in the form and save changes. The new contact will be added with an new name ( the auto- incremented numeric prefix added to the name of contact). To hide the contact type from a customer, and thus make this contact a read-only, check the Force box next to the contact type name. 6 To save changes, click the Update button.
- 74. 74 Setting Up Domains Registration Allowing Domain Transfer Per Registrar TLDs Domains transfer can be allowed or disallowed as a system-wide option, in store settings. However, if you allow domains transfer in general, you still can narrow the set of domains allowed for transfer by selecting particular TLDs which transfer is allowed for. You can select TLDs allowed for transfer for each domain registration plug-in. To select TLDs allowed for transfer, go to the Service Director - Domain Manager - Plug-Ins. Select a plug-in and then click the Prices tab. Select a TLD from the list that appears and check the Allow transfers box, set transfer fee. Configuring Default Records for Zone Files (DNS Templates) Using the DNS template, you can set the pre-defined configuration of resource records in a zone file created on domains registration in Parallels Business Automation - Standard. Note: Default SOA records are bound to TLDs and configured in Domain Manager - Setup -SOA Defaults. DNS templates are bound to Domain Registration hosting plans. When you add a hosting plan (any type except for One-Time Fee Item type), you should always select the corresponding DNS template. To add a DNS template, please go to the Service Director - Domain Manager - DNS Templates. To facilitate configuration of services on a domain, DNS Template types have been introduced. Now you can create DNS templates that can be used in a particular hosting plan types. One of the DNS templates within each type should be marked as default. The default DNS template is applied to zone files in case no DNS template has been specially assigned. The list of DNS templates displays the following: ID. The numerical identifier automatically assigned to a DNS template in Parallels Business Automation - Standard. DNS Template. The DNS template name assigned by you. This name is used in Parallels Business Automation - Standard to just refer to a DNS template.
- 75. Setting Up Domains Registration 75 Account. The name of an account a DNS template has been added by. Type. The type of hosting plan a DNS template is used for. Default. The green tick in this column means that a DNS template is the default one and is to be applied to zone files if no other DNS templates are specified. Red cross - that a DNS template is not the default one and is to be applied in accordance with a manual assignment to a hosting plan. The default DNS template is also can be used while restoring a domain zone file from the Parallels Business Automation - Standard database. To use the default DNS template for zone files restoring, set this in Domain Manager - Setup.
- 76. 76 Setting Up Domains Registration Specifying Name Server Sets For the fresh Parallels Business Automation - Standard installation, by default you have two Provider name servers grouped into one set - the default name servers set. You can use the default name servers set or you can add more name servers and create more name servers sets. It is possible to install and configure name servers directly from the Provider Control Center web-based interface. The default name servers set can be selected in the Service Director - Domain Manager - Setup. Name servers set are specified per Domain-Registration Hosting Plan. Registering Internationalized Domain Names An Internationalized Domain Name (IDN) is a standard for the domains that can contain characters other than the 36 basic ASCII ones permitted to date (a-z, 0-9, and -). This includes Latin letters with umlauts, accents and other diacritics, but it goes further than that and allows using completely different alphabets, such as the Greek and Cyrillic ones, as well as Chinese letters and characters. Parallels Business Automation - Standard does not call for any specific configuration to start registering IDNs. A domain name entered as a Unicode string is converted into a permitted ASCII domain name. A system called Internationalizing Domain Names in Applications (IDNA) (http://ietf.org/rfc/rfc3490.txt?number=3490) was adopted as the chosen Internet standard for IDNs. The IDNA algorithm transforms domain names which include letters that are not available in ASCII into the format that can be handled by normal name servers. This transformation algorithm is based on the Punycode ASCII encoding of normalized (Nameprep) Unicode strings. Note: The IDNA standard requires that the user who would like to view an IDN, has an IDN compatible application (browser, mail client, etc). The lists of such applications are available over the web. Nameprep is the process of normalization, case-folding, etc. applied to a text before it is suitable to represent a domain name. Nameprep is defined in RFC 3491 (http://ietf.org/rfc/rfc3491.txt?number=3491).
- 77. Setting Up Domains Registration 77 Punycode defined in RFC 3492 (http://ietf.org/rfc/rfc3492.txt?number=3492) is the special encoding of Unicode strings into the limited character set supported by the DNS. The encoding is applied separately to each component of a domain name which is not represented solely within the ASCII character set, and a reserved prefix „xn—„ is added to the translated Punycode string. Thus, an IDN always has two forms: one with special characters and the other in pure ASCII also called ACE (ASCII Compatible Encoding) or Punycode. This ACE string is then entered into the DNS. The introduction of IDN means that in this case the entry in DNS is no longer identical with the domain name. Not all the world‟s Top Level Domains (TLDs) are going to take on all these special letters and characters! Each registry responsible for a TLD is to decide for itself which subset to admit for the domains under it. In doing so, it strikes a balance between the limitations imposed by the standard and the particular needs of its local Internet Community. So please, keep this in mind when enabling INDs registration in Parallels Business Automation - Standard as system-wide option and then selecting TLDs per domain registration plug-ins. Note: Some letters are not included in the IDNA Standard, such as the German „ ‟ (called „scharfes s‟ or „eszett‟), which should be written as „ss‟ instead. The eszett is a letter that is totally unique to the German alphabet. Unlike other letters, it has no upper case form, because it never occurs at the beginning of a word. The eszett is always normalized as „ss‟ and thus, is typically shown as „ss‟ in registered domain names. For example, wei .com will not be transformed to xn—wei-abc.com. Rather, it must be written as weiss.com and therefore is classified as a normal domain. You can enable registering IDNs globally, as a system-wide setting, in Service Director - Domain Manager - Setup. Managing Contacts Used for Domain Registration The composition and format of contact data required for domains registration differs depending on Registrar. Some Registrars require a rather specific data. To simplify domain registration procedure for your customers, you can replace Registrar‟s contacts form with your own one (a so called base contacts) that have a standard format. Base contacts usage is provided by a special methods used in plug-in. For more information about domain plug-ins API, please see the Parallels Business Automation - Standard SDK. Provider contacts are managed under Domain Manager > Setup > Contacts tab. Customer contacts are managed under the Contacts tab within an account properties.
- 78. 78 Setting Up Domains Registration To replace Registrar contacts with your own contacts form, go to Domain Manager > Plug- Ins > select a plug-in, then click the Prices tab. Select a TLD. The number and names of contacts offered here may vary depending on a Registrar. The most typical set is Owner Contact, Administrative Contact, Billing Contact, and Technical Contact. The contacts list displays the following: ID - contact numerical identifier assigned in Parallels Business Automation - Standard database. Contact name - contact name a contact is referred to. Company name - the company name specified in the contact. Available for business contacts only (i.e., contacts for enterprises). First name - first name specified in a contact. Last name - last name specified in a contact. Type - a contact type (Business - for enterprise, Personal - for person). To edit or remove an existing contact, click on a contact name and after a contact view form appears on the screen, click the Edit button to edit, Delete - to remove a contact. To create a new contact, click the Create button. A new contact will be available for selection for all contact types right after you save it. The form for a new contact creation is standard and the same for every contact. Form fields are pre-filled with the contact data fetched from your Administrative account: Account Type. Select the account type (Business or Personal). This selection defines the contact type. Company name. Available only if you select the Business account type. Enter the name of company. Contact name. The contact name for reference. E-mail. Contact e-mail. Name. Enter the first and last names of the contact person. Address. Enter the postal address (without city). City. Enter the city name. State (US or Canada). If you select USA or Canada country, select the state. State (other countries). You can optionally specify the state or province for countries other than USA or Canada. Country. Select country. Zip/postal code. Enter the zip code. Phone. Enter the contact phone number. Fax. Enter the fax number. To save the contact, click the Update button. Specifying Whois Servers
- 79. Setting Up Domains Registration 79 You can form a list of Whois servers in Parallels Business Automation - Standard and after this bind each of top level domains to one of more Whois servers. Note: It is possible to set up the whois with HTTP protocol enabled. To add a whois server, select Service Director - Domain Manager - Setup - Whois Servers. To assign a whois server to a TLD, go to the Service Director - Domain Manager - Setup and then select the TLDs tab. Select the TLD and assign one or more whois servers (from the set formed before in Parallels Business Automation - Standard) to a given TLD. In this section: Setting Up HTTP Whois Search ........................................................................ 79 Setting Up HTTP Whois Search To set up the whois search for a plug-in, you need to: 1 Contact your Registrar support and ask them to register the IP address of the computer that runs Parallels Business Automation - Standard (your Management Node). Without this registration all requests sent by the plug-in will be rejected by the Registry. 2 In the Parallels Business Automation - Standard Control Center register a separate whois server for Registrar and configure it properly: a Select Service Director - Domain Manager - Setup. b Click the Whois Servers tab on the Setup menu. c Click the New Whois Server button. d On the New Whois Server form that appears check the Use http protocol box. Some fields will become unavailable (Port, Command prefix, Command suffix, Drop TLD in request). Enter a new whois server friendly name into the Title field. And into the Whois server you must enter the URL to whois query. A domain name will be added to the query automatically. Set the option button to Use „domain not found‟ pattern. Enter the usual pattern for a whois server into the field next to this option, e.g. Domain does not exist. 3 Click the Save button.
- 80. 80 Setting Up Domains Registration Viewing Incoming and Outgoing Domain Registration E-mails You may need to view the domain registration log e-mails. This gives ability to review history of sent messages as well as troubleshoot processing of incoming messages triggering domain registration within the Parallels Business Automation - Standard (such as messages sent by domain registrar modules communicating via email-based protocol). The e-mail senders/recipients are: Billing Event Manager Mass Mailer Domain registration plug-ins that use e-mail to communicate with Internet Registrar. Trouble tickets The log can be viewed at Configuration Director - Logging and Errors - E-mails Log. Here you can view the inbox mail at the Incoming Mail tab and the outbox mail at the Outgoing Mail tab. For your convenience it has been designed with the following columns: ID - unique ID assigned to the e-mail; Subject - the subject of the e-mail; Accepted/Sent for Incoming Mail and Outgoing Mail respectively - the date of the message acceptance/dispatch; Status - the status of the message; By now the e-mails are assigned the following statuses: Processed - the e-mail has been processed all right; Error - the e-mail processing has failed; Skipped - the e-mail has arrived to the right address but the system does not know how to handle it or chooses not to process it; Unknown - the handler has failed to assign any of the above statuses to it. The handler does not how to respond to the e-mail. Handler - Parallels Business Automation - Standard module processing this e-mail.
- 81. CHAPTER 7 Setting Up Billing System This chapter describes how to set up Parallels Business Automation - Standard Billing System: prices and discounts, credit terms, taxation, fraud protection, credit card processing and other billing features and tools. In this chapter: Understanding the Parallels Business Automation - Standard Billing System .... 82 System-Wide Billing Settings ............................................................................. 85 Pricing and Discounts ........................................................................................ 86 Setting Credit Terms ......................................................................................... 88 Configuring Taxation ......................................................................................... 89 Configuring Fraud Protection ............................................................................. 90 Configuring Credit Card Payment Plug-ins ........................................................ 94 Configuring Bank Transfer Payment Plug-ins .................................................... 96 Using Specific Accounting ................................................................................. 97
- 82. 82 Setting Up Billing System Understanding the Parallels Business Automation - Standard Billing System Parallels Business Automation - Standard billing system is supported by the Billing Director that provides financial management of the following client categories: Resellers and Customers. For settlement purposes, Accounts are created for each category. Parallels Business Automation - Standard billing provides a single-currency settlement and accounting system. A system-wide currency can be selected per Control Center (one currency for Provider and another currencies for Resellers, the exchange rate can be set per Reseller). In order to change the system-wide currency, select Configuration Director - Miscellaneous Settings - Regional Settings. Hosting Plan is the basic account unit that used for calculation of money equivalent of services provided. A subscription period can be selected by customers from offered by Hosting Service Provider (one month, three months, six months, and year). Services provided in accordance with a Hosting Plan are paid in advance, in accordance with resource-specific quotes. Resources overusage is paid either in advance or at the end of subscription period. Note: In Parallels Business Automation - Standard billing, the billing cycle equals to one month by default. This means that statements and resource overusage invoices are generated for each subscription each month. There are no mentions about billing cycles in Parallels Business Automation - Standard web-based interface. Invoices are being generated in accordance with Subscription terms. Account balance is calculated on the basis of actual resource usage and payment(s) received. Account balance is calculated every hour (by default). Current Account balance is regularly compared with customer credit limit. Depending on Billing Manager settings and Account balance, the following operations can be performed: Notification about negative Account balance can be generated and sent to a customer; Negative balance and credit limit control, generating reports on Accounts in debt; Suspending subscriptions associated with Accounts in debt in the case of credit limit overrun; For Virtuozzo Container subscriptions, changing a Container parameters (available resources limitation) in the case of resource overusage. Basic Notions Subscriptions A Subscription holds terms of contract between Hosting Service Provider and a customer. Changes in Provider prices do not affect terms of Subscription. This means that prices for the Hosting Plan purchased remain changeless up to the end of subscription period.
- 83. Setting Up Billing System 83 However, if additional Applications or Containers were purchased, or a Subscription was upgraded to a higher version of the same hosting plan, then Subscription terms may change. Documents In respect to the Parallels Business Automation - Standard Billing Director, this notion means all financial documents that exist within the system. The documents may be created by a customer or may be generated automatically. The following documents‟ types exist: Orders - the documents that include information about Hosting Plans or additional services ordered by customers. Orders are generated automatically, after a subscriber orders one or another service; Payments - off-line and online payments for hosting services. An Order can be paid by several payments; Invoices - invoices are generated automatically after placing Orders or can be added manually. Invoices can be paid by parts; Credit Invoices - documents that add a certain amount to an account balance and include the itemization of services or other goods refunded or paid to an account owner. Adjustments - adjustments are used for Accounts‟ balance adjustment. For example, Credit Adjustment is applied if a customer was overcharged (to increase the Account balance), and Debit Adjustment is applied if a customer ordered additional services (increase the billed sum and decrease Account balance). Payment Requests - financial documents generated after a customer requests an arbitrary payment to increase his/her account balance. Each financial document has its total sum and a balance, which allows both applying several payments to one Invoice, and applying single payment to several Invoices. Balance Your hosting company balance is the sum of all your customers and resellers account balances. A customer or a reseller account balance is calculated as a total sum of all payments and credit adjustments with a total amount of Invoices, Orders, and Debit Adjustments deducted. Positive account balance means that an account owner has a certain overpayment, so Provider owes money to a customer. Negative account balance means that a customer or a reseller owes money to Provider. Zero account balance means that neither Provider, nor a customer do not owe money to each other. Your hosting company balance does not reflect your earnings. It just shows whether your customers owe money to you or you owe money to your customers. Reports Billing Manager reports (Collected Cash, Revenue Report, Aged Account/Receivable, etc.). Notifications
- 84. 84 Setting Up Billing System E-mail notifications generated automatically in connection with certain events within Parallels Business Automation - Standard system. In this section: Calculations for the Services Provided .............................................................. 85
- 85. Setting Up Billing System 85 Calculations for the Services Provided The scheme of pre-pay for services provided is implemented within the Parallels Business Automation - Standard. However, you can provide services on credit as well. To this effect, make the relevant changes to the Billing Manager - Payments Processing. In the case of resource overusage (i.e., a subscriber exceeds the quote of paid resources stated by Subscription) the Invoice for overusage cost is being generated within the system. Only the resources marked as Billable and (at the same time) Metered are taken into account during Invoice generation. System-Wide Billing Settings The Parallels Business Automation - Standard provides the powerful and flexible billing system that allows: System-wide currency in the Configuration Director - Miscellaneous Settings - Regional Settings. Re-defining the starting numerical identifiers (IDs in Parallels Business Automation - Standard database) for accounts, financial documents (orders, invoices, payments, and adjustments), statements, subscriptions, and Containers (Containers) in the Configuration Director - Miscellaneous Settings - Objects Opening ID. Setting the starting reference numbers and both prefixes and suffixes for financial document numbers (invoices, orders, payments, adjustments, and payment requests) in the Billing Director - Settings - Documents numbering. This setting allows adjusting the Parallels Business Automation - Standard accounting to suit specific accounting requirements. Adding subscription periods in the Billing Director - Settings - Subscription Periods. Setting the mode of credit adjustments automated generation and invoices handling under Billing Director - Settings - Invoice Settings. Creating different discount categories to be assigned to customer and reseller accounts (applied to services purchased for an account) and, in addition used to set up a special partner discounts to be assigned to resellers - applied to prices a reseller pays provider for resold services) in the Billing Director - Discount Manager. Creating and using Different credit terms that can be assigned per account and define the order of settlements in the Account Director - Subscription Manager. Flexible taxation (on page 89) with ability to use the EU Tax Exemption Code in the Billing Director - Taxation Manager. Ability to automatically apply unused customer payments. This setting can be allowed as a system-wide one in the Commerce Director - Payment Processing - General Configuration and later enabled or disabled for each particular offline payment. Configuring and enabling the fraud screening filters in the Commerce Director - Anti- Fraud Manager. Configuring the recurring billing in the Commerce Director - Payment Processing and Commerce Director - Online Payments - Setup with the fine-grained transactions approval tools.
- 86. 86 Setting Up Billing System Pricing and Discounts This chapter contains information on how to manage prices and discount. Use the links below for reference on the following: How the total price for services is calculated (on page 87). How to set credit terms for your customers (on page 88). In this section: Managing Prices ............................................................................................... 87
- 87. Setting Up Billing System 87 Managing Prices Prices for services you sell in your online store are set using the Billing Director - Product Manager, per hosting plan. Retail prices for domain registration are also set per hosting plan. Original registrar prices can be set per domain registration plug-in, per TLD using Service Director - Domain Manager. Setting registrar prices is not necessary, but it may facilitate specifying retail prices since registrar fees pre-fill the domain registration pricing form when you set retail price for a hosting plan. To create a Hosting Plan (on page 129), go to the Billing Director -Product Manager - Hosting Plans. Setup and recurring fees for Container hosting plans are set per plan individually (the Billing Rates tab in a hosting plan properties). Retail prices for domains registration are set per hosting plan. Registrar prices are entered per domain registration plug-in, Service Director > Domain Manager > Plug-Ins, select a plug-in and then select the TLDs tab, chose a TLD and specify prices. Several domain plug-ins support the online prices update, and the most of them do not. Registrar prices are entered for reference only, they pre-fill the price-related fields in a hosting plan creation form, to facilitate retail prices setup. You can add a custom sellable services (custom attributes to a hosting plan) in the Billing Director -Product Manager - Custom Attributes. Custom attributes can be attached to hosting plans during creation or later. The Parallels Business Automation - Standard provides the discounts management tools: Discounts that can be attached to accounts: Discount categories (on page 177). This is just the discount percent attached to a customer or a reseller account and applied to purchases made for an account. Partner discount specially attached to a reseller account. One of a pre-set discount categories mentioned earlier can be assigned to a reseller account as a partner discount. This discount is applied to amounts a reseller owed provider for re-sold services. Promotions. The discount periods for sale of one or a several hosting plans. Each promotion has a sales period during which a hosting plan being promoted will include a certain discount valid during a certain discount period. To promote hosting plans, you can create different promotions in the Billing Director - Discount Manager - Promotions and define per promotion the list of hosting plan to be promoted. You can create both public promotions and promotions activated by a coupon code. If a coded promotion is applied to a hosting plan, a customer will be asked for a coupon code on the order review page at your online store. Finally, if taxation is enabled, the total price for services you offer in your online store is calculated in accordance with the corresponding tax zone and if you use the tax exemption , with the personal customer‟s VAT number. For more details on taxation, see earlier in this guide (on page 89).
- 88. 88 Setting Up Billing System Setting Credit Terms Credit terms regulate financial relations of Provider and customer or reseller in case a reseller purchases something for their own: Order validity period - the maximal period of time an open Order can stay in Parallels Business Automation - Standard. The order validity period starts when an initial order or a renewal order is created. After validity date an Order becomes cancelled automatically. It is not possible to re-open a cancelled order. Due period - the period of time during which an Invoice should be paid. The due period starts right after an invoice is generated. If an invoice is still not paid by the due period end, such invoice such invoice becomes overdue and the overdue period for an invoice starts. Overdue period - the period that starts after an Invoice due period is over. An Invoice is considered as overdue, however, the charged services are still provided during overdue period. After the overdue period is over, an unpaid invoice becomes cut-off and disabled for payment. However, the cut-off invoices can be reopened and paid. Charge rate - the penalty amount (percents of Invoice sum). Applied on yearly basis. Penalty is calculated during an invoice overdue period. For example, if charge rate is set to 365%, then daily charge equals to 1% of Invoice total sum per day. Charge rate is used to calculate the Overdue invoices amount. Minimal charge - minimal penalty amount, regardless actual penalty calculated in accordance with charge rate. Minimal charge is used for Overdue invoices amount calculation in case the charge rate amount is too small. Credit Limit - the maximal amount an account can owe a vendor. While a credit limit is not overdrawn, a customer orders are completed automatically, before payment is applied. When a credit limit is overdrawn, ordered services are provided only after a corresponding order is paid. A special event is provided in Parallels Business Automation - Standard when credit limit becomes overdrawn - event ID 23 „Account credit limit has been overdrawn‟. Both customer and vendor receive notifications when such an event happens. The actions over subscription (put on hold, etc.) can be set specially in the Event Manager. Credit limit can be also set per customer account and in this case the credit limit set in credit terms will be overdrawn by the value set in account properties. Subscription expiration and termination terms: Grace period - the period that starts after a Subscription period expires. The grace period can be considered as additional chance for a debtor to renew his (or her) Subscription. During Grace period, a Provider already has the right to suspend services. After Grace period runs out, a Provider terminates Subscription. By default, the minimal Grace period is one day. Expiration period - the period of time an expired subscription is stored in the database. After an expiration period is over, a subscription is deleted, i.e., all the data related to a subscription is lost. Renewal order period - The period of time remaining before a subscription expiration date when a renewal order is generated. By default, the minimal duration of the order renewal period is one day.
- 89. Setting Up Billing System 89 Subscription Termination Terms - the period of time a terminating subscription remains in the Account Director > Subscription Manager > Subscriptions > Termination Queue. It is possible to explicitly set the method of subscriptions termination for each of the available subscription periods and for trial subscriptions, three variants of termination method are available for each. To select the termination method, set the option button to one of the variants: Terminate manually. In this case a subscription will stay in the Termination Queue in the Terminating state until manual termination. This variant completely disables automated termination for a subscription. Terminate automatically in a period. This option allows specifying a particular period of time in days, months, or years during which a terminating subscription will stay in the Termination Queue. When this period is over, a subscription is terminated automatically. After the option button is set to this variant, select a termination period units (days, months, or years) from the relevant drop-down menu and then enter a period duration into the field next to the drop-down. Terminate immediately. This option allows terminating a subscription automatically, right after a subscription termination is requested. In this case, a subscription is even not placed into the Termination Queue. Note: Please pay attention to selecting the default credit terms. This credit terms will be used for all accounts created by your customers during registration in your online store. To add credit terms, go to the Account Director - Subscription Manager - Credit Terms. Configuring Taxation You can set different tax rates that can be applied automatically to orders total amount depending on a customer tax zone. The tax zone can be bound to a buyer‟s country (state) of residence or to a customer‟s account. In addition, you can create the default tax zone to define the tax rate for any of the countries you did not created a special tax zone. Tax zones can include several tax rates and it is possible to set the order of these tax rates application. If taxation is enabled, you can configure the HSPstore to show prices taxed in accordance with a particular tax zone defined for HSP account. Or you can just show the net prices and the notification saying that the prices are taxed depending on the customer‟s individual Tax Zone.
- 90. 90 Setting Up Billing System Малюнок 1: Configuring taxation. It is also possible to use tax exemption for foreign customers, i.e., customers that specified in their account profile a country of residence other than your HPS company resides. To use tax exemption, it is necessary to enter the HSP VAT Number into the Billing Director - Taxation Manager - Setup form and enable tax exemption. When tax exemption is enabled, the foreign customers can enter their own VAT Number into a customer account profile either from the Control Panel or during account creation in your HSPstore. In addition, you can manually enter VAT Numbers for your customers (in Account profile -> Financial Info tab). Note: Tax exemption affects business accounts only. Personal accounts (with a single contact) are subject to the relevant taxation settings. To make taxation more secure and strict, you can set the orders processing in such a way that no transactions will be allowed until you manually verify and approve either both the customer‟s address (i.e., the tax zone) and VAT Number or one of them. Note: For EU customers the VAT Numbers are always checked in respect to the correspondence of the VAT Number entered by a customer to the country of residence specified in a customer account profile. You can set the automated approval mode VAT Number for EU customers in case the check had shown that the code does correspond to the customer country of residence. You can configure taxation in the Billing Director - Taxation Manager. Configuring Fraud Protection Parallels Business Automation - Standard provides a flexible rules-based anti-fraud system that allows configuring a wide range of checks and approvals. It is possible to configure specific checks for any stage of order placing, starting from a customer registration and up to an order confirmation. Anti-fraud checks are configured by composing various sets of rules under pre-defined anti-fraud filters provided (for account registration, order placing, payment, etc.). Each rule uses one anti-fraud plug-in with pre-defined check result and defines an action or amount of fraud points to be scored in case an actual check result matches a result defined in a rule. The threshold fraud score is assigned to every anti-fraud filter and if the overall fraud score produced by rules included in a fraud filter exceeds a filter threshold score, a given operation (account registration, transaction, etc.) is declined. The anti-fraud plug-ins provided include IP, e-mail, phone, and other black lists, open proxy check, and a set of built-in plug-ins like phone/country, IP country, IP city check, and USA Phone. To configure anti-fraud plug-ins, go to the Commerce Director - Anti-Fraud Manager - Anti- Fraud Plug-ins.
- 91. Setting Up Billing System 91 To configure anti-fraud filters, go to the Commerce Director - Anti-Fraud Manager - Anti-Fraud Filters. In this section: Adjusting Anti-Fraud Plug-ins General Settings ................................................. 92 Managing Accounts and Documents Held Up by Anti-Fraud Filters ................... 92
- 92. 92 Setting Up Billing System Adjusting Anti-Fraud Plug-ins General Settings The settings that are common for each plug-in (behaviour on check errors and availability for resellers) are grouped under the General Configuration tab in a plug-in properties. A plug-in availability for resellers can be also adjusted by using the controls provided for the list of anti-fraud plug-ins. The most of non-configurable plug-ins have only General Configuration tab under their properties. You can both define the availability for resellers and check errors processing mode for such plug-ins and use these plug-ins in anti-fraud filters. Some of non-configurable plug-ins, for example, Phone Country, have a second tab called Plug- In Configuration, but this tab provides only the read-only list of data (for Phone Country this is the country codes formats), without the ability to change or add samples. Managing Accounts and Documents Held Up by Anti- Fraud Filters The Anti-Fraud Manager allows sorting out suspicious orders and accounts and collecting them in a separate Checklist, where these documents and accounts can be checked and approved manually. This makes anti-fraud checks more reliable and provides additional security. When an order is held up by an anti-fraud filter, it is silently moved to the Anti-Fraud Manager > Checklist with Need Approval status. A customer who have placed this order is not informed about anti-fraud check result. However, in this case, there is no payment step in store. A customer is informed that an order processing is in progress and offered to log in to the Control Panel and pay an order there. Meantime, provider or reseller can check an order and approve it allowing further processing, i.e., payment. If an order is not approved, it cannot be paid from the Control Panel as well. The system message says that an order is in process and offers to contact vendor in case of problems. To send documents or accounts in the Anti-Fraud Manager > Checklist or let an order or an account pass this check, the additional actions are provided. You can use these actions in anti-fraud filters‟ rules. Need Approval. In case a rule condition is fulfilled, an order is placed into the Anti- Fraud Manager Checklist and waits for manual approval. No points are scored. Approve. In case a rule condition is fulfilled, an order passes a rule with Approved result. No points are scored. For example:
- 93. Setting Up Billing System 93 To send a suspicious account into the Anti-Fraud Manager > Checklist, go to the Anti- Fraud Manager > Anti-Fraud Filters, select the Account Registration filter. Add a new rule with a negative condition, for example, select the Country Black List plug-in and select the Customer country is included in the Country Black List condition. Click Next. On the next screen, select the Need Approval action. All accounts with this country specified as a customer country of residence will be placed into the Anti-Fraud Manager Checklist. Do not forget to activate both the filter and the rule. To send suspicious documents into the Anti-Fraud Manager > Checklist, add rules with the Need Approval action into the order-related filters. The Anti-Fraud Manager Checklist consists of two lists, one for accounts, under the Accounts tab and another is for documents, under the Documents tab. The list of accounts checklist displays the following: ID. An account numerical identifier assigned automatically in Parallels Business Automation - Standard. Account Name. An account name. Result. The result of anti-fraud check: Need Approval Error Rejected Postponed Approved Balance. An account current balance, i.e., the difference between the paid amount and the amount a customer owes you. The list of documents check list displays the following: ID. A document numerical identifier assigned automatically in Parallels Business Automation - Standard. Type. A document type (order, invoice, payment request, etc.) Account Name. The name of an account that have issued a document. Filter. The anti-fraud filter that have held up a document. Result. The result of anti-fraud check: Need Approval Error Rejected Postponed Approved Balance. A document balance, for invoices - an unpaid part of a document amount. Total. A document total amount. Document Date. A document issuing date. To approve an account or allow the further document processing, check the box next to an account or a document ID and click the Approve button.
- 94. 94 Setting Up Billing System Configuring Credit Card Payment Plug-ins Parallels Business Automation - Standard offers a wide range of built-in modules (plug- ins) that provide an ability for you to accept online payments at your online store and process them with different online payment gateways. You just need to set up your Merchant Account at a payment gateway and then enter your Merchant data into the corresponding plug-in configuration form in Parallels Business Automation - Standard. The plug-ins set includes both plug-ins to real payment systems and the Dummy Plug- in (for testing purposes). The following transaction types are implemented in Parallels Business Automation - Standard: Sale - a single-step transaction without pre-authorization. Money are just withdrawn from a card. Credit - refund after funds have been settled, i.e. a transaction data have been passed from a payment gateway to an acquiring bank. Preauth - a purchase amount is reserved at a card and authorization is needed to withdraw money and finish a payment. PreauthReversal‟ - a transaction is cancelled on the „Preauth‟ stage, i.e., pre- authorized funds are released. Capture - the reserved amount was withdrawn after authorization. Capture Reversal‟ - a transaction was cancelled on the „Capture‟ stage, but before funds are settled. What Payment Plug-Ins are Available Payment plug-ins are shipped as RPM modules independent from Parallels Business Automation - Standard functionality. The full list of payment plug-ins shipped with Parallels Business Automation - Standard is available at SWsoft official website http://www.parallels.com/en/products/hspcomplete/templates/payment/. How to Configure a Payment Plug-In After installation, a plug-in becomes available in Parallels Business Automation - Standard as a selectable type for a new payment plug-in configuration. To add a payment plug-in based on one of a standard configurations, it is enough to go to Commerce Director, proceed to Online Payments > Payment Plug-ins, click New Plug-In, enter a new plug-in configuration name and select a configuration type. After this, a plug-in configuration form appears on the screen. The only thing to do after this - fill the form and save the configuration. The number of plug-ins that can be added on the basis of the same standard configuration is not limited.
- 95. Setting Up Billing System 95 Activating Payment Plug-Ins and Making Them Available for Resellers To use the configured payment plug-ins you should activate them for your store. In addition, it is possible to flexibly set payment plug-ins availability for Resellers: after a Provider allows a plug-in usage for a Reseller, this Reseller can register their own Merchant account and use a plug-in for their own e-commerce business. In respect to payment plug-ins availability for resellers, each plug-in can be disabled or enabled globally (for all resellers) or a plug-in availability can be set as undefined and then a plug-in availability can be set in reseller account properties, under the Payment Plugins tab. The list of payment plug-ins displays the following: Name. The title a Plug-In is referred to in Parallels Business Automation - Standard (typically, the plug-in name follows the name of a payment gateway or payment system). Active. If a plug-in is activated, then this payment system is available at your online store. You can activate and use any and up to all payment Plug-ins at the same time. Active (currently enabled) Plug-in can be selected by clicking on Plug-in title and then, after the Plug-in configuration appears, on the Mark as Active button. Green tick in this column indicates that a payment system plug-in is currently active. Security With CVV and AVS The Parallels Business Automation - Standard credit card payment Plug-ins provide the following security features: Card Verification Value code (CVV2) verification. CVV code is a three- or four-digit code which provides a cryptographic check of the information embossed on the card. The CVV code is not part of the card number itself. The CVV code helps ascertain that the customer placing the order actually possesses the credit/debit card and that the card account is legitimate. Each credit card company has its own name for the CVV code, but it works similarly for all popular card types. (VISA refers to the code as CVV2, MasterCard calls it CVC2, and American Express calls it CID); Address Verification Service (AVS). As part of every transaction processed, the customer‟s address and zip code (Billing Address) are sent to your processing network for AVS verification. The processing network returns an AVS “code” indicating whether the customer-provided information matches the information on file for the customer at their processing bank;
- 96. 96 Setting Up Billing System Disabling automatic funds capture. This allows performing some additional credit card verification procedures prior to funds capture. In this case, pre-authorizing of a transaction will be performed and you will have to post-authorize the transaction manually from the payment gateway interface. This might be useful to avoid chargebacks if you have too much fraud on your site. Note: For most of payment plug-ins available in Parallels Business Automation - Standard you can configure the list of credit card types to accept both in HSPstore and Control Panel. This list can be configured per payment plug-in. If a payment plug-in does not support this feature then such payment plug-in will accept all types of credit cards. Configuring Bank Transfer Payment Plug- ins Bank transfer payment plug-ins implemented in Parallels Business Automation - Standard allow direct debiting of bank accounts starting from corresponding orders and invoices issuing, and finally, generating batch files to be submitted to a bank and transactions approval. Bank transfer payment plug-ins are shipped as RPM modules independent from Parallels Business Automation - Standard functionality. The following bank transfer payment plug-ins are shipped with Parallels Business Automation - Standard: Dummy DTAUS Norma19 Clieop3 After installation, a plug-in becomes available in Parallels Business Automation - Standard as a selectable type for a new payment plug-in configuration. To add a payment plug-in based on one of a standard configurations, it is enough to go to Commerce Director, proceed to Bank Transfers > Payment Plug-ins, click New Plug-in, enter a new plug-in configuration name and select a configuration type. After this, a plug-in configuration form appears on the screen. The only thing to do after this - fill the form and save the configuration. The number of plug-ins that can be added on the basis of the same standard configuration is not limited. To generate a batch file, you should go to Commerce Director - Bank Transfers - Documents, select documents prepared for a particular bank (it is clearly shown how documents were created for which bank), then adjust the selection (exclude some documents from a batch) and generate a batch file. When a batch file is generated, it is being automatically saved on your local computer. Then you can manually submit a batch file to a bank. After the batch file is approved (bank transfer performed), you should manually process documents included in a batch to start the purchased services provisioning.
- 97. Setting Up Billing System 97 Using Specific Accounting By default the Parallels Business Automation - Standard billing system uses the standard accounting that follows the USA accounting basics. Some additional accounting features can be added using the special accounting plug- ins and/or a couple of system-wide settings mostly related to refunds and valid for all accounting plug-ins where refunds are in use. Enabling a Specific Accounting Plug-in 1 Click Plug-ins Activation on the Accounting Manager submenu. 2 Accounting plug-ins can be enabled per account (Provider or reseller ones). Select an account from the accounts list that appears on the screen. 3 Select an accounting plug-in to be enabled for this account from the drop-down menu and save the changes. The current Parallels Business Automation - Standard version provides the following additional accounting plug-ins: Greek accounting. Italian accounting (specific accounts registration, invoicing, and taxation rules) Russian accounting (factures management, ability to add custom parameters to accounts, specific taxation rules). Ukrainian accounting. Accounting plug-ins are included in the Parallels Business Automation - Standard distribution and are installed in the same way as the other plug-ins. Note: A new accounting scheme is applied immediately after activation. We do not recommend to switch the accounting scheme several times or change the default accounting into a custom one without the need. In Provider Control Center, to change the accounting scheme for Provider account, click Plugins Activation on the Accounting Manager submenu, select your Provider account (ID 1) from the list that appears and, as the accounting plug-in setup form appears, select a new accounting plug-in from the relevant drop-down menu. Similarly, a special accounting can be enabled for any of resellers (per account). In this section: Russian Accounting Options ............................................................................. 98
- 98. 98 Setting Up Billing System Russian Accounting Options Additional accounting plug-ins do not affect the basic accounting implemented in Parallels Business Automation - Standard. Orders, Invoices, and other documents that managed under Billing Director > Receivable > Documents are created anyway. When you use one or another accounting plug-in, you get some additional billing options. Russian accounting plug-in provides the following options: Taxation. When you enable the Russian accounting, the Russian VAT tax zone with 18% tax rate is created automatically. You can view this tax zone under Billing Director > Taxation Manager > Tax Zones. The VAT line is then added to all the orders automatically as soon as you use the Russian accounting. The default name of this tax zone is RU VAT Tax. Use online help to know more about tax zones management. Specific attributes for accounts. Special attributes. The following attributes are added to Provider account in PCC or reseller accounts in corresponding RCC (these attributes can be adjusted under the second item of the left menu in PCC or RCC, where the name of account administrator is shown): Accountant First and Last name Bank Account Bank Corr. Account Bank Name BIC INN KPP Leader First and Last name Two attributes are added to all customer accounts created when Russian accounting is enabled: INN KPP These attributes can be viewed or edited under a special tab that appears for the Russian accounting - Ext. Attributes. To view or adjust these attributes, go to the Account Director > Customer Manager > Customers, select a customer account, then select the Ext. Attributes tab. Note: You can add custom extended attributes. Please see the Parallels Business Automation - Standard SDK, the „Customizing Parallels Business Automation - Standard‟ chapter.
- 99. Setting Up Billing System 99 Factures creation. In addition, under the Ext. Attributes tab for every customer account, you can enable or disable creation of invoices specific for Russian accounting. These invoices are called „factures‟, not in its original meaning, but as a loantranslation of the Russian word „schet-faktura‟. However, in default English localization factures are called „invoices‟. You can customize this string as this described in Parallels Business Automation - Standard SDK the „Customizing Parallels Business Automation - Standard‟ chapter. To create invoices-factures, check the Create invoices box. Documents specific for Russian accounting. When you use the Russian accounting, the following documents are created: Schet. A document created when customer places an order or renews subscription. In other words, shchet is in some sense similar to order in the basic accounting. Schet is issued by the amount to be paid including setup and subscription fees. Facture, in default English localization called Invoice. Invoice-facture is issued on subscription activation, by the amount of setup fee only and then, every month by the amount of a subscription fee and at the end of a subscription period. In case a subscription period is longer than 1 month, a monthly invoice- facture is issued by the amount of pro-rated price for one month. This monthly incoice-facture is called in Russian accounting as “otgruzochaya” and represents a special type of facture used in Russian accounting. Russian specific documents are managed under the Billing Director > Accounting Manager. To get the relevant menu items in the PCC/RCC left menu, after you have enabled the Russian accounting, refresh the browser window. After this, two items appear in the left menu under the Accounting Manager: Accounting Documents. Here you can manage Russian accounting specific orders called Schets and Factures (both approved and not approved) called invoices. Not Approved Invoices. Here you can review and approve invoices-factures. An approved invoice-facture becomes visible for a customer in Control Panel > My Account > Billing Documents. A special forms provided for russian accounting documents. You can print them one- by-one. However, PDF printing as well as mass print is not supported. Currency exchange rate and factures generation setup for all accounts. By default, the Russian accounting plug-in recalculates prices set in a system-wide currency in Parallels Business Automation - Standard into a Russian rubles (RUR) for all documents specific for Russian accounting, namely, schets and invoices- factures. The exchange rate can be set in Accounting Manager > Accounting Plug-in Setup. In addition, the invoices-factures creation can be enabled globally for all accounts on the the Accounting Plug-in Setup screen. To create invoice-facture for each customer order select Enable from the Set the “create invoices” attribute for all your accounts menu. To disable invoices-factures creation for all accounts, select Disable. Note thes this setting can be overridden by per acount option (see above).
- 100. CHAPTER 8 Managing Website and Online Store Store and website is presented as a set of .php files that define both the website pages and store steps logic and some other related files and modules. The HTML templates (.inc files) are provided for each store page. This makes website re-branding and customization much easier. Default files are always stay untouched since customized files are put into a special directory inside store folder. Customized files simply override the default ones. To get back to default configuration, you should move customized files from a special custom directory into some other location. Important: Basic migration to a new PHP based store is performed during upgrade (such as keeping header/footer and pages the same), however site/store is to be carefully checked and corrected after upgrade is installed. Remote Store Installation: Store can be installed at a separate server. Provider can have several stores installed at different servers. Store installation at a separate server requires redefining some constants in store configuration file and some configuration at the Management Node. Please refer to the Parallels Business Automation - Standard SDK for details. Note: By default, the full access to store configuration is available for Parallels Business Automation - Standard installation owner, i.e., for provider only. Resellers can use simple tools for store customization provided in web interface under the Store Manager (open/close store, upload some files like logo, header/footer, etc.). Files uploaded in such a way are placed into a special directory for custom files (see directory structure description below) and override the existing default settings for reseller store. However, provider can allow a reseller to have an own store installation, on a separate server, for example. This issue is up to provider policy and provider/reseller relations. The store simple settings are made via web interface in Commerce Director > Store Manager: > Configure Store (on page 103): Open or close store. (on page 103) Adjust a store URL (on page 103). Adjust hosting plans listing (on page 104) Enter referrer question. (on page 105) > Reseller Stores (on page 109): Open or close a reseller store. > File Manager (on page 110): Upload a default stylesheet file. Upload website header and footer. Upload site logotype.
- 101. Managing Website and Online Store 101 Upload favicon, preloader icon, and adjust preloader. Add offline payments conditions description. User Agreement can be entered under the Account Director > Customer Manager > Terms and Conditions. Reseller Agreement (on page 184) can be entered in the Account Director > Reseller Manager > Terms and Conditions. Advanced store setup is done by store files customization, which requires PHP and HTML knowledge. The ability of accepting offline payments is set in store configuration file. Offline payments are allowed by default. You can disable this in the store configuration file settings.ini. On the server where Parallels Business Automation - Standard is installed, go to the /var/opt/hspc-frontend/includes directory. Open the settings.ini file and edit it: set OFFLINE_PAYMENT = Off. The other advanced option is the ability of selling billable resources in store. Customers can adjust the billable resources configuration (in the frame of maximal allowed value) when buying a hosting plan. In this case, the additional resources ordered over the included value are billed in accordance with „Price for additional‟ set in a hosting plan, and corresponding lines are added to a customer order. This option is enabled by default. If you want to disable it, please contact support. The online marketing campaigns (on page 273) setup is made in store configuration file. The „Affiliates‟ site page template is shipped with the store installation. You only need to paste the texts. Site pages menu can be customized in the header.ini file. By default, store is installed into the /var/opt/hspc-frontend directory. Store files directory structure is the following: Directory Contains files /var/opt/hspc- .php files for store pages and the stylesheet frontend (.css) file. images/ Images used in store and other site pages ( buttons, icons, purchase steps numbers, etc.) includes/ Configuration files. templates/ *.inc files that contain HTML templates for website and store pages.
- 102. 102 Managing Website and Online Store vendor/Account_ID/ Directory where customized files must be placed. Account ID is replaced with actual ID of store owner account (provider - always 1 - and reseller accounts 2 and greater). This directory is created automatically for provider account and all reseller accounts. Note 1: The vendor/1/ directory is created for provider by default. Directories for resellers are created during reseller account creation. Custom files uploaded using the Store Manager > File Manager are placed in these directories. Note 2: The customization.xml file located in the vendor/ directory defines what store files and directories can be customized using the web interface - the File Manager integrated into the Store Manager. In this chapter: Configuring and Opening Store ......................................................................... 103 Managing Resellers‟ Stores ............................................................................... 109 Customizing Store Using File Manager ............................................................. 110 Known Problems Related to Store ..................................................................... 115
- 103. Managing Website and Online Store 103 Configuring and Opening Store The store General Settings screen displays the following: Status. Whether Provider store is Open (available for customers over the Internet) or Closed (not available over the Internet). Allow offline payment in store and CP. Whether offline payments are allowed in HSPstore and Control Panel: - Not allowed - Allowed Site Settings. The Store URL (the location where Store is currently installed). To adjust Store General Settings: 1 Click the Edit button 2 To open the store, check the Store is open box. To close store, clear this box. 3 To allow offline payments in store and Control Panel, check the Allow offline payment in store and CP box. To disallow offline payments, clear this box. 4 Enter the store URL into the Store URL field. 5 To save the changes, click the Save button. In this section: Adjusting Hosting Plans Listing ......................................................................... 104 Entering Referral Question ................................................................................ 105 Viewing Revenue per Referrers ........................................................................ 106 Managing Store Secure Keys ........................................................................... 107
- 104. 104 Managing Website and Online Store Adjusting Hosting Plans Listing The Plan Listing options allow you to adjust the order of hosting plans listing at the first page of the store. Hosting plans shown in the store are grouped by types, and you can define the order of both hosting types and particular hosting plans in each group. The Plan Listing screen displays the following: Sorting by Hosting Plan Types. The order of hosting plan groups, by types. Sorting. The order of particular hosting plans in each group. Default Hosting Plans. Domain registration hosting plan used by default in Store if a customer selects domain registration right away, without a hosting package. To adjust hosting plans listing: 1 Click the Edit button. 2 In the Sorting by Hosting Plan Types menu you can see the list of hosting plan types available. Provider can see all hosting types. Resellers can see the hosting plan types allowed for re-selling. To change the order of hosting plan types in the store, click on the hosting plan type (it will become highlighted) and move it up or down the list by clicking the Up or Down button respectively. To select several hosting types in series, hold down SHIFT, and then click the first and last hosting types of the group. To select several hosting types that are nonadjacent in the list, hold down CTRL, and click a hosting plan type. 3 In the Sorting part of the screen form, you can see hosting plans available for sale and grouped by types. Only hosting plans that are currently active, available for sale and have at least one sellable period activated are shown. To adjust the order of hosting plans listing in each group, select hosting plan(s) similarly to you have done this hosting plan types (described in item 2) and move selected item(s) up or down the list using the Up and Down button. 4 To save the changes, click the Update button.
- 105. Managing Website and Online Store 105 Entering Referral Question Referrals allow you to collect useful information about the efficiency of your advertising media. Using the Referrals tab of the store settings, you can place at your HSPstore a question like “How did you know about us?” and enlist your advertising media (TV, Internet, etc.). The question will be displayed at the Place Order page at the HSPstore. As your customers will provide responses, you can collect useful statistics. The Referrals screen displays the following: Referral Question. The question your customers are asked. Referrals. Variants of answers. Note that you can enable and disable each answer. Only enabled (i.e., shown in store) answers are enlisted here. To adjust referral question: 1 Click the Edit button located at the Referral Question bar. 2 Enter a new question into the Referral Question field. If you do not want to use referrals in the store, just leave this field clear. 3 Click the Update button. To adjust referral answers: 1 Click the Edit button located at the Referrals bar. 2 The list of referral answers displays the following: ID. Numerical identifier of an answer assigned to it in Parallels Business Automation - Standard database. Title. An answer text. Enabled. Whether an answer enabled or disabled: - an answer is shown in the store so customers can select it. - an answer is hidden, i.e., not shown in the store, but stored in Parallels Business Automation - Standard database. To use controls: 1 Select an answer you want to manage by checking the box next to its title. 2 Click on one of the buttons: Enable. Show an answer in the store. Disable. Hide an answer, do not show it i store, but keep it in the Parallels Business Automation - Standard database. Move Up. Move n answer up the list within the drop-down menu in the store where all variants of answers are shown. Move Down. Move n answer down the list within the drop-down menu in the store where all variants of answers are shown.
- 106. 106 Managing Website and Online Store Delete. Delete an answer from Parallels Business Automation - Standard database. To add an answer: 1 Click the New Referral button. 2 Enter the answer into the Title field. 3 To use this answer in store, check the Enabled box. To hide an answer, clear the Enabled box. 4 Click the Save button. Viewing Revenue per Referrers If your HSPstore is configured to collect referrals statistics (on page 105), you can view reports on revenue per each referral under the Revenue per Referrer tab within the Configure Store settings. Then click the View button to see how many orders have been placed (and money paid) by customers who knew about your Company from one or another advertising media (or other referral). The report displays the following: Referrer. The variant (from offered by you) a customer had selected in answer to your referrer question (e.g., “How did you know about us?”) Orders. How many Orders were placed (and money paid) by customers those knew about your Company from one or another advertise media (or other referral). Amount. The total amount paid by customers those had selected one or another referrer.
- 107. Managing Website and Online Store 107 Managing Store Secure Keys Secure keys are used for more secure authorization when connecting to the Parallels Business Automation - Standard server via the XML API, in particular, for remote installation of Parallels Business Automation - Standard PHP Store. When store is installed at a remote server, it works as a client and Parallels Business Automation - Standard Management Node works as a server. Store communicates with Parallels Business Automation - Standard server via the Parallels Business Automation - Standard XML API. In spite of the fact that remote clients can establish connection with Parallels Business Automation - Standard management node only via the SSL protocol, problem of keeping clean passwords at a client side considerably decreases security level of remote Online PHP Store deployment. It is also possible to use a vendor e-mail/password for authorization, but this is much less secure, because in this case vendor login/password are explicitly specified in the store configuration file. Secure key can be certainly used for local store installation as well. Note: Secure keys are generated in Parallels Business Automation - Standard graphical interface, but to use a key, it is necessary to open a store configuration file manually in a text editor and paste a key. All the configuration necessary for setting up the Parallels Business Automation - Standard store at a remote server is described in details in the Parallels Business Automation - Standard SDK, „Customizing Parallels Business Automation - Standard‟ chapter > „PHP Based Store Customization‟ > „Manual Store Installation on Remote Server‟. Secure keys are generated on the basis of store hostname. store ID, and key generation date/time. Provider and all resellers can generate as many keys as needed, in this case, several keys can be generated for the same store hostname. Authorization is performed on a store hostname and secure key match. If you have several keys generated for the same hostname, you can use any of them for authorization. Parallels Business Automation - Standard installation owners (Providers) can use a local or remote store installation, at their choice. Resellers are given a default store configuration on the basis of Provider store, with a basic customization options available in Parallels Business Automation - Standard web- based Reseller Control Center. As for the full access to store files, resellers can get an own store installation on a special arraignment, and this is up to a Provider. Secure keys are managed under Commerce Director > Store Manager > Configure Store > Security Settings tab. To generate a new key: 1 Click the New Key button.
- 108. 108 Managing Website and Online Store 2 Enter the hostname of the server where the Parallels Business Automation - Standard store is deployed into the Store Hostname field. 3 Click the Create button. The key is generated immediately. The list of keys appears on the screen. It displays the following: ID. The key numerical identifier assigned in the Parallels Business Automation - Standard database. Hostname. The hostname the key is generated for. Key. The key hash. Creation Date. The date and time the key has been generated. You can re-generate an existing key for another hostname or delete any key. Please note that the key would work only if it is stored in the Parallels Business Automation - Standard database and generated for the hostname of the server your store is actually deployed. If you re-generate the key, you must update it in the store configuration file. To update or delete a key: 1 Click on a key hostname or ID in the keys list. 2 As soon as a key details appear on the screen: To update a key, enter a new hostname into the Store Hostname field and click the Update button. To delete a key, click the Delete button.
- 109. Managing Website and Online Store 109 Managing Resellers‟ Stores All stores that belong to resellers are shown under the Store Manager > Reseller Stores. Provider can open/close reseller stores and adjust some other general settings. The list of reseller stores displays the following: Acc. No. A Numerical ID of a reseller account assigned to it in Parallels Business Automation - Standard database. Reseller. A reseller account name. Open. Whether a store is currently open or closed: - store is available over the Internet for customers, i.e., is open. - store is not available over the Internet for customers, i.e., is closed. To manage a reseller store, click on reseller account ID or reseller account name. To adjust a reseller store configuration, click the Edit button. A reseller store settings include the following tabs: General Settings Status. Whether reseller store is Open (available for customers over the Internet) or Closed (not available over the Internet). Site Settings. The URL to the location where a reseller Store is currently installed. When store is moved to other location, the Store URL changes accordingly. Plan Listing Adjust hosting plans presentation at reseller store.The same settings as for provider store (on page 104). Referrals Add a referral question in the same way as this is done for provider store. (on page 105) Revenue per Referrer View the revenue report based on referrers statistics. The same settings as for provider store (on page 106). Security Settings Generate or manage existing secure keys used for authorization when reseller store connects to the Parallels Business Automation - Standard server via the XML API. The same settings as for provider store (on page 107).
- 110. 110 Managing Website and Online Store Customizing Store Using File Manager The File Manager integrated into the Store Manager is a quick-start tool for store customization. It allows performing a basic and simple customization of the store and go live as soon as possible. Using the File Manager, provider can quickly upload some basic templates and images, and resellers can use the store File Manager as a place to start and a default tool to perform their own customization. File Manager allows customizing the basic Store files and uploading a static content of vendor‟s website: In the store root/ directory: Upload a default stylesheet file Upload a favicon image - your marketing icon in your customers‟ browser address bars, favorites and tabs. In the store templates/ directory: Upload website header and footer Edit or upload an HTML website header Add offline payment conditions description. To add or adjust the offline payments description, edit this file and save the changes. Customize website pages preloader (a special popup that appears while site pages are being loaded). In the store images/ directory: Upload site logotype logo.gif. Upload the icon used by site pages preloader loading.gif. In addition, it is possible to use SSI. Customized default files are shown on Store pages and you can preview the Store by entering your server name (vendor management node hostname or reseller hiding hostname) into your browser. To preview the site content, enter into your browser your server name with the following path appended: /hspc/path_to_file where path_to_file must be replaced with an actual path to a file starting from customization root. For example, if you have created a custom /site directory and uploaded a content.html file, then to preview this content you must enter into your browser: http://your_server_name/hspc/site/content.html where your_server_name must be replaced with actual hostname of your Parallels Business Automation - Standard server.
- 111. Managing Website and Online Store 111 You can add a standard store templates to your site pages using SSI. For example, you can include the standard header and footer into your site page (index.html or index.shtml - you can use both extensions): <html> <head> <title>My Index Page</title> </head> <body> <!--#include virtual=”templates/header.inc” --> My Page Content <!--#include virtual=”templates/footer.inc” --> </body> </html> Important notes regarding SSI: to preview SSI config please explicitly enter the page URL in your browser, do not use the link shown at the File Manager screen, because Apache does not actually process this content. Please remember that you cannot include customizable files that have not been customized yet, i.e., the files that are shown in italic font at the File Manager screen. To make it possible for a file to be included, you must edit it so it will be saved in your personal customization directory. Running executable modules using SSI directives is not possible. By default, the File Manager screen shows the names of Store files and directories that can be customized. These names are not a real links, but only hints showing the Store files and directories names. Such a „symbolic‟ links are shown in italic font. The italic font a file or directory is shown means that a file or directory have not been customized yet, so there is no real files in the customization directory /var/opt/hspc- frontend/vendor/accountID. Note: The set of Store files available for customization is defined by vendor. Please refer to the Parallels Business Automation - Standard SDK (HTML or PDF document) for details. To copy a default file into your customization directory, check the box next to a file name (directories cannot be edited) and click Edit. To save a default file in your customization directory, you do not need to change a file content. Just click OK and a file will be considered as customized and saved. As soon as you customize the default files or edit them, the custom files or copies of default files are saved in the personal directory /var/opt/hspc- frontend/vendor/accountID. Customized files are shown in normal font. Default files are not affected by customization performed using the File Manager. You can restore defaults simply by deleting custom files or directories. As the defaults are restored, files‟ and directories‟ names become shown in italic font again.
- 112. 112 Managing Website and Online Store Малюнок 2: File Manager. Images are customized. Other files are default. Since the original default files cannot be renamed or customized, a default file with its original name (shown in italic font) appears each time you rename it. Малюнок 3: File Manager. Default file and directory have been renamed. Files and directories names are built in the Store code and thus, it is critical for Store functionality that you follow the files and directories naming convention. As soon as you change the default name of customized file or directory, the File Manager detects that there is no customized file with correct name and immediately switches to the default file that always stays named correctly. At the screen it looks like a not customized default file or directory (name shown in italic font) has appeared, as this is shown on the screenshot above. In respect to options and controls provided, the store File Manager is similar to an ordinary file manager, except for access permissions setup. Permissions are not needed here. User apache is set as files/directories owner by default and this ownership cannot be changed. The list of files and directories displays the following: Name. The name of a file or directory. Size. A file size. For files without default location specified in customization.xml the Size and Date are not shown. Description. A file short description. Date. The date a file or directory has been modified the last time.
- 113. Managing Website and Online Store 113 To open a specific directory click a directory name. The path at the top of the list shows the current location. To view a file contents, click on its name. The buttons at the top of the files and directories list serve for the following actions: Make Directory. Add a new directory to your website under your current working directory; Upload File.Upload a file to your system; To perform an action with a file or a directory: Check the box next to a file or a directory name and use controls: Edit. Edit a file contents. Properties. View file or directory size, file type, etc. Rename. Rename and/or move file or directory. Select a file or directory and click Rename. Enter the path and name of the new location of the file or directory, and click OK to save changes; Copy. Copy a file or a directory to another location. Select an object for copying then click Copy. You will be offered to select the destination and copying options. Move. Move a file or a directory to another location. Select an object for moving then click Move. You will be offered to select the destination and moving options. Pack. Pack a file or a directory. Select file(s) by selecting check-box to the left of file name. Then click Pack. You will be offered to select the packaging options. Unpack. Extract a file or a directory from an archive. Select file(s) then click Unpack. You will be offered to select the packaging options. Delete. Remove a file or directory. To create a directory: 1 Click the Make Directory button. 2 Fill the form that appears on the screen: a Type the directory name into the Directory name field. b Select the correct set of permissions using checkboxes. If you are not sure about permissions setup, then leave the default permissions. 3 Click the OK button. To upload a file: 1 Change the location to the directory you want to upload a file into. 2 Click the Upload File button. 3 Fill the form: a Enter the file name and location on your local computer in the File to Upload field. Or click the Browse... button to locate the file. b You can rename the file on uploading. Type the new file name in the New file name field.
- 114. 114 Managing Website and Online Store Note: You can upload up to 15 files at once. To upload several files, select the number of files from the Upload_files at once drop-down menu and click the Display button. The required number of fields to enter file name(s) to be uploaded appears on the screen. c Specify the rules to be applied to the files to be uploaded in case other files are already exist in the destination directory. Set the option button to one of the following: Do not upload if a file with the same name exists in the destination directory - to prevent overwriting existing files with a new ones in case exiting files have same names as new ones. Skip all the files that exist in the destination directory. to prevent overwriting existing files with a new ones in case exiting files have same names as new ones. Overwrite all the files in the destination directory - to overwrite files existing in destination directory in case these files have the same names as filed being uploaded. 4 Click the OK button to upload a file.
- 115. Managing Website and Online Store 115 Known Problems Related to Store This subsection describes problems that may occur in connection with PHP store deployment and use and advises how these problems can be solved. The subsection is entirely based on our customers reports. And the idea was to make a useful information available for a wider circle of customers. The problems we describe here are connected not with the store itself, but with some peculiarities of store environment, for example PHP version used at a store server or Apache misconfiguration. In course of time, this subsection may be amended with new solutions in case new problems will be reported by our customers. Please remember that remote store installation requires a specific configuration described in details in the Parallels Business Automation - Standard SDK, chapter Customizing Parallels Business Automation - Standard > PHP Based Store Customization > Manual Store Installation on Remote Server. Problem For PHP version 4.4.4.compiled with the—enable-wddx option and running on Red Hat Enterprise Linux AS release 3 (Taroon Update 5), kernel version 2.6.9- 023stab044.4-enterprise, Apache 2.0.46 , the remote Store sometimes fails to save a PHP session. This problem shows itself in the following way: Remote store displays the message: Our store is temporarily closed. We apologize for the inconvenience In the Apache error log on a remote server the following errors are written: [Wed Apr 25 00:22:20 2007] [error] [client 84.237.120.254] API Session has been opened, sid = [Wed Apr 25 00:22:20 2007] [error] [client 84.237.120.254] FaultCode => <> [Wed Apr 25 00:22:20 2007] [error] [client 84.237.120.254] FaultString => [Wed Apr 25 00:22:20 2007] [error] [client 84.237.120.254] No callback found! If Apache frontend and backend are configured correctly for the remote store at the Parallels Business Automation - Standard Management Node, in accordance with SDK recommendations, the problem may be connected with the PHP Session Serializer. By default, the WDDX Session Serializer is used for all PHP versions below 5.x.x. Solution The problem solution depends on the Parallels Business Automation - Standard version.
- 116. 116 Managing Website and Online Store If the Parallels Business Automation - Standard version you use is below 3.3. Service Pack 2, then do the following: 1 Open for editing the {STORE_ROOT}/includes/hspc.php file. 2 Find the strings: if(ereg( “4.[0-9].[0-9].*”, phpversion())) { ini_set(„session.serialize_handler‟, „wddx‟); } 3 Comment the string: ini_set(„session.serialize_handler‟, „wddx‟); 4 Save the file. If you use the 3.3. Service Pack 2 or later, then you can explicitly define the session handler in the store configuration file {STORE_ROOT}/includes/settings.ini: 1 Open the settings.ini file for editing. 2 Find the SESSION_SERIALIZE_HANDLER parameter. It defines the session handler. Two values are possible, either php or wddx. 3 If you use PHP 4.x.x then change the handler from one value into another. If php is set, change it into wddx, and conversely. This should help. For PHP 5.x.x php should be ok. If the offered solutions do not work, please contact support.
- 117. CHAPTER 9 Managing Payment Methods Parallels Business Automation - Standard supports two payment methods: Credit card. A customer pays by a credit card and a payment is being processed in real time by one of the credit card systems available in Parallels Business Automation - Standard via configurable plug-ins. Bank transfer. A customer pays using a bank account and appropriate order is being created. Bank Account orders then can be grouped into a batch to generate a batch file to be submitted to a bank. This chapter describes how to manage customer credit cards and bank accounts saved in Parallels Business Automation - Standard. In this chapter: Configuring Encryption for Payment Methods .................................................... 118 Managing Recurring Payments ......................................................................... 118 How a Payment Method Can be Added............................................................. 119 Managing Credit Cards...................................................................................... 119 Managing Bank Accounts .................................................................................. 125 Viewing Transaction Log ................................................................................... 126
- 118. 118 Managing Payment Methods Configuring Encryption for Payment Methods Both credit cards and bank accounts private data must be stored encrypted. To use credit cards, it is not necessary to store cards data in Parallels Business Automation - Standard, but if you are planning to process delayed payments, credit cards data must be saved. As for bank accounts data, it is always must be saved in Parallels Business Automation - Standard to make it possible to generate batch files containing the transactions data to be submitted to a bank. The payment methods private data saved in Parallels Business Automation - Standard is encrypted with public key and after this, to perform transaction, you need a secret key to decrypt it. Parallels Business Automation - Standard allows generating two key pairs - to use the second one if the first key pair is lost. If you already have a key pair saved somewhere, you can upload it. To upload or generate a new key pair, go to Commerce Director - Payment Processing - Secure Storage. Select the Keys Management tab. To enter a secure key temporarily, select the Secure Key tab. In this case, you can define the period of time the key will be still stored in the Parallels Business Automation - Standard so that you could process several transactions instead of one. Managing Recurring Payments Recurring Billing tools provided in Parallels Business Automation - Standard allow you to charge your customers on a recurring basis, automatically. Recurring billing makes it possible to set up regularly scheduled payments, such as subscription fees. The order of payment methods usage for recurring payments in Parallels Business Automation - Standard is the following: 1 Check the payment amount in respect to the maximal amount to be paid recurrently.(Commerce Director - Payment Processing - General Configuration). 2 Check the payment amount in respect to the minimal amount to be paid online. (Commerce Director - Payment Processing - General Configuration). 3 Check for credit cards allowed for recurring payments and in OK status. 4 If no applicable credit cards found, check for the applicable bank accounts (allowed for recurring payments and in OK status). For recurring billing to work, customers credit card or bank account data must be stored in Parallels Business Automation - Standard database, so billed amount can be automatically withdrawn from a customer credit card or bank account without the need for you to enter a payment method requisites.
- 119. Managing Payment Methods 119 Thus, the first thing to do to set up the recurring billing, is making it possible to store credit cards and bank accounts in Parallels Business Automation - Standard, i.e., secure storage configuration (on page 118). Then, you need to make sure that payment methods data will be saved in Parallels Business Automation - Standard: Special setup is needed. Credit cards are not necessarily must be stored in Parallels Business Automation - Standard to make payments (some payment plug- ins redirect payers to payment gateway web payment pages and a payment can be submitted directly, beside Parallels Business Automation - Standard). But to use recurring billing with credit cards, you must set credit cards processing to save credit cards data in Parallels Business Automation - Standard database (Commerce Director - Payment Processing - Secure Storage - General Settings). No need for additional settings. Bank accounts data is being always saved as soon as the secure storage is configured, since one-step payments by bank accounts are not possible. Bank accounts requisites are to be included in transaction requests (batch files) that can be generated only manually, and it takes some time to compose a batch, so if a bank account requisites were not saved - a transaction request cannot be submitted to a bank. Finally, to make recurring billing more secure, you can impose some restrictions for payments being processed recurrently: amounts to be processed, number of attempts to pay a document recurrently, etc. (Commerce Director - Payment Processing - General Configuration). How a Payment Method Can be Added A credit card or a bank account can be saved in the Parallels Business Automation - Standard system in one of the following ways: 1 From Provider or Reseller Control Center, by a staff member: From Account properties - Payment Settings. From the general list of payment methods (Commerce Director - Online Payments or Bank Transfers). When your staff member enters a credit card or bank account requisites when changing payment method for a document. 2 From Control Panel, by a customer (Account Summary -Payment Methods). 3 From your online store, when a customer pays an Order. Note: For most of credit card plug-ins available in Parallels Business Automation - Standard you can configure the list of credit card types to accept both in HSPstore and Control Panel. This list can be configured per payment plug-in. If a payment plug-in does not support this feature then such payment plug-in will accept all types of credit cards. Managing Credit Cards
- 120. 120 Managing Payment Methods Provider can add, remove, suspend customer credit cards in Parallels Business Automation - Standard. The types of credit cards to accept are set per credit card plug- ins. In this section: How to Start Accepting Credit Cards ................................................................. 121 Setting Transactions Approval and Processing Mode ....................................... 121 What is CVV ...................................................................................................... 124
- 121. Managing Payment Methods 121 How to Start Accepting Credit Cards The Parallels Business Automation - Standard provides the set of plug-ins, which allow establishing connection with payment gates and accept online payments in the HSPstore. To configure the payment plug-ins, you need to register an account (or sign up) at corresponding online payments processing center and obtain the necessary data (merchant ID, the processor URL, etc.). After this, you can go to the Commerce Director - Online Payments - Payment Plug-ins and fill the simple form to enable a plug-in. The types of credit cards to accept can be selected per payment plug-in (if a plug-in configuration allows this). To process online payments and use the recurring billing, you need the credit cards data to be saved in the Parallels Business Automation - Standard database. Thus, it is necessary to enable credit cards data encryption: The credit cards private data saved in Parallels Business Automation - Standard is encrypted with public key and after this, to perform transaction, you need a secret key to decrypt it. Parallels Business Automation - Standard allows generating two key pairs - to use the second one if the first key pair is lost. If you already have a key pair saved somewhere, you can upload it. To to generate or upload the key pair, go to the Commerce Director - Payment Processing - Secure Storage and select the Keys Management tab. To secure transactions, you can enable the SSL protocol (on page 28) for your online store. You can also configure fraud screening. To configure and enable fraud screening, go to the Commerce Director - Anti-Fraud Manager. Fraud screening includes both pre-configured (country-code) and configurable (black e-mail, phones, etc.) checks. Setting Transactions Approval and Processing Mode The settings made for credit cards affect credit cards only. Bank transfers are processed manually or in accordance with the special settings, but without the direct connection with bank, so the batch processing is not subject to online payments processing. You can set the mode of online payments processing in the Commerce Director - Online Payments - Setup: Payment processing and subscription creation are performed automatically. The least secure setting. All online Orders will be both charged and processed automatically and placed in the Processed Documents list in the Commerce Director - Online Payments - Documents.;
- 122. 122 Managing Payment Methods Payment processing and subscription creation require manual approval. The most secure option. If this checkbox marked, and a customer uses a credit card at your HSPstore to pay for services ordered, the new credit card properties are always being saved (without respect to the „Credit Card Processing‟ setting) and the appropriate Order will be always placed into the „For Approval‟ list. Thus, you can view the new Orders that were intended to be paid using new credit cards and examine the new credit cards properties. This allows you to keep the non-trusted users out of Parallels Business Automation - Standard and prevent the fraudulent transactions. Payment processing occurs automatically, but subscription creation requires manual approval. In this case, the needed sum will be automatically withdrawn from customer credit cards, but all new Orders will be placed in Documents for Approval list, and your staff member will need to approve Orders manually to provide services to a customer; Note: The manual approval both for credit card and Order processing option cannot be enabled unless online-payment Plug-in supports automatic payments („Automatic payments supported‟ is ticked on a plug-in details view screen). Automatic payment feature is a Plug-in feature and it cannot be enabled or disabled using Parallels Business Automation - Standard web interface. On the other hand, if this option is enabled, it is impossible to select a payment Plug-in that does not support pending payments. Enable or disable the automated funds capture for transactions performed. You can enable or disable this feature separately for new orders and both for renewal and upgrade orders - to enable automated funds capture, check the relevant boxes. Disabling the automated funds capture allows performing some additional credit card verification procedures prior to funds capture. In this case, pre-authorizing of a transaction will be performed and you will have to post-authorize the transaction manually from the payment gateway interface. This might be useful to avoid chargebacks if you have too much fraud on your site. Select the CVC code storage policy. The CVC code is a three- or four-digit code, which provides a cryptographical check of the information embossed on the card. The CVC code is not part of the card number itself. The CVC code helps ascertain that the customer placing the order actually possesses the credit/debit card and that the card account is legitimate. To select the CVC, set the option button to one of the following: Do not save the Credit Card validation code (CVV). You can check this box if you do not to save the CVV codes together with the other credit card data. Save the Credit Card validation code (CVV) for future transactions. You can check this box to save the CVV codes together with the other credit card data. Note: If you enable the CVV saving it will be necessary for you to enter the CVV code when saving a credit card in HSP complete database (the CVV Code field will appear in the New Credit Card form both on Control Center and in online store). Keep the Credit Card validation code (CVC) till first successful transaction. Set the option button to this if you want the CVC code to be saved only till a successful payment is performed by a credit card. For example, if you add a credit card manually and do not pay with this card right away, the CVC code will be stored till the first successful payment.
- 123. Managing Payment Methods 123 In this section: Suspending Transactions to Perform Additional Check ..................................... 123 Suspending Transactions to Perform Additional Check To make credit card payments more safe, you can suspend transactions on one of the following conditions: Payment processing is set to manual approval globally (on page 121). Fraud screening plug-ins had found at least one suspicious attribute in the information provided by a customer. You can enable this security option in the Billing Manager - Setup - Payments Processing. Customer‟s address and/or tax zone requires manual approval. This security option can be enabled in the Billing Manager - Settings - Taxation - General Settings.
- 124. 124 Managing Payment Methods What is CVV The Card Verification Value (CVV) is a three- or four-digit code which provides a cryptographic check of the information embossed on the card. The CVV code is not part of the card number itself. The CVV code helps ascertain that the customer placing the order actually possesses the credit/debit card and that the card account is legitimate. Below we show the examples of CVV placement on some of credit card types we accept. American Express. A four digit non-embossed number on the face of the card, just above the embossed account number. Discover. A three digit non-embossed number on the back of the card printed within the signature panel after the account number. Mastercard A three digit non-embossed number on the back of the card printed within the signature panel after the account number. VISA A three digit non-embossed number on the back of the card printed within the signature panel after the account number.
- 125. Managing Payment Methods 125 Managing Bank Accounts Parallels Business Automation - Standard provides the opportunity of storing bank accounts data in the Parallels Business Automation - Standard database and batch processing of bank transfers. When a customer places an order at your online store and selects a bank account as a payment method, this bank account is automatically saved. The corresponding order is recognized by Parallels Business Automation - Standard billing system by a payment method type and placed into the queue of documents awaiting for grouping into a batch. All documents intended to be paid by bank accounts are then automatically recognized by bank account types and can be grouped into batches automatically, by one click. All bank accounts saved in Parallels Business Automation - Standard database can be found under the Commerce Director - Bank Transfers - Bank Accounts. In addition, bank accounts registered for a Particular Parallels Business Automation - Standard account are enlisted in an Account properties, under the Payment Settings tab. It is also possible to save new bank accounts manually and change bank account settings that define an account status in Parallels Business Automation - Standard (availability for payments). Note: Your customers will be offered to use their bank accounts saved in Parallels Business Automation - Standard database in HSPstore, to pay online for the services ordered. In this section: How to Start Accepting Bank Transfers ............................................................. 125 Adding Bank Account Manually ......................................................................... 126 How to Start Accepting Bank Transfers To accept bank accounts payments in your online store, you need the following Parallels Business Automation - Standard configuration: Encryption (on page 118) for bank accounts private data to make it possible to store bank accounts in Parallels Business Automation - Standard database. Bank account payment plug-ins (on page 96) set up and activated. The SSL protocol enabled (on page 28) for your online store.
- 126. 126 Managing Payment Methods Adding Bank Account Manually To add a bank account manually, do one of the following: Open the list of bank accounts in Commerce Director - Bank Transfers - Bank Accounts. Click the New Bank account button. Select an account type and fill the form that appears. Go to the Account Director and select a customer or a reseller account. Click the Payment Settings tab on the account properties set and then click the New Payment method button. Select the payment method type (Bank account) and fill the form. Viewing Transaction Log The transaction log includes the detailed data about all online transactions (successful or failed) performed within Parallels Business Automation - Standard. To view transaction log for online payments, go to the Commerce Director - Online Payments - Transaction Log. To view transaction log for bank transfers, go to the Commerce Director - Bank Transfers - Transaction Log.
- 127. CHAPTER 10 Managing Hosting Plans A hosting plan is a set of services you can sell. Depending on a hosting plan type, different types of services can be included in a plan. When HSP creates hosting plans, they can make a hosting plan available for Resellers. In this case, Resellers can copy such hosting plans and set own prices. In addition, Resellers can create own hosting plans. Hosting plans are managed under the Billing Director - Product Manager - Hosting Plans. The list of hosting plans displays the following: ID - Numerical identifier, automatically assigned to a hosting plan in Parallels Business Automation - Standard database. Title - A hosting plan name used to refer to a plan in Parallels Business Automation - Standard. In HSPstore, hosting plans are referred by their titles. Active - Whether this plan is enabled for use (create subscriptions from Provider Control Center and/or sell. Sell - Green tick in this column indicates that services, based on this hosting plan can be sold by the Hosting Provider or by Resellers, red cross - that not. Type - a type of hosting services provided by a hosting plan. Category - Categories are defined in Billing Manager/Settings/Hosting Plan Categories and used to logically group hosting plans Hosting Plan. Trial - whether a free trial subscription period is available for a hosting plan or not. Green tick means that a trial period is available, red cross - that not. Subscriptions. The total number of active subscriptions based on a hosting plan. In this chapter: Hosting Plan Types ........................................................................................... 128 Hosting Plans Categories.................................................................................. 128 Creating Hosting Plans ..................................................................................... 129 Upgrading Hosting Plans .................................................................................. 161 Adding Custom Services to a Hosting Plan ....................................................... 166 Managing Hosting Plans by Versions ................................................................ 168 Creating a Hosting Plan on the Basis of an Existing One .................................. 169 Promoting Hosting Plans................................................................................... 169 Calculations for the Hosting Plan Change ......................................................... 170
- 128. 128 Managing Hosting Plans Hosting Plan Types The set of hosting plan types is read-only in respect to its composition, however Provider can rename the hosting types in a way that, for example, seems more descriptive. The names of hosting plan types are shown on the first step of hosing plan creation wizard. To rename or view the hosting plan types available, go to the Billing Director - Product Manager - Hosting Plans - Hosting Plan Types tab. Then select the type and edit its name. You can also make use of the multilingual conversion option to switch the language of the hosting plan type into the one you need. Parallels Business Automation - Standard supports multi-lingual customization for a wide range of fields (website texts, hosting plan names and description, notification templates). You can enter and save texts in any of the languages available for the current Parallels Business Automation - Standard implementation (Bulgarian, Chinese Simplified, Chinese Traditional, Dutch, English, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Polish, Russian, Spanish). To select the language, click one of the buttons with language names tiled below the field you want to enter the text and enter the text in the language selected. For example, click English - and edit the English text, then click German (the English content will be saved and replaced with the German content in the same field) and edit the German text, and so on, for all languages you want to use in your store. To restore the default hosting plan type name, click the Reset to Default button. Note: It is possible to create the trial-only hosting plans (for the types of hosting the trial period is allowed for) and so-called one-time-fee hosting plans, which allow selling services or other goods without subscription creation and thus, without renewals. Hosting Plans Categories Hosting Plan Categories are the groups of Hosting Plans of one or the same purpose (for example, Shared Webhosting, Corporate Hosting and Mail, etc.). For the initial Parallels Business Automation - Standard configuration you can create several Hosting Plans Categories and in future group actual Hosting Plans by these categories. To create Hosting Plan Categories (or, add a new one), go to the Billing Director - Product Manager - Hosting Plans. Select the Hosting Plan Categories tab and click the New Hosting Plan Category button. Type the name of new Hosting Plan Category into the Title field. In future, use buttons Add and Remove to add or remove (in case of mistake) the Hosting Plan(s) to (from) a Category. Click the Save button to add new Hosting Plan Category.
- 129. Managing Hosting Plans 129 Particular Hosting Plans may be added to certain Hosting Plan Category during creation of the new Hosting Plan or by selecting a category from the common list. Let us consider the latter variant. To select a Hosting Plan Category click on its name or ID in the common list. General settings (name and Hosting Plans included) will be displayed on the screen. Click the Edit button and proceed in the same way as for Category creation. Creating Hosting Plans Hosting plans creation in Parallels Business Automation - Standard is rather simple: select the hosting type and follow the corresponding wizard. To create a hosting plan, go to the Billing Director - Product Manager - Hosting Plans and click the New Hosting Plan button. Several steps (1st, 2nd, and the two final ones) are common for all types of hosting plans. Namely: The first step. Hosting plan type selection. The second step. General settings (on this stage you define the hosting plan general attributes and availability for resellers): Title - Convenient alphanumeric identifier to refer to a Hosting Plan in common lists, Subscriptions, and documents (Orders and Invoices). For better manageability, Hosting Plans can be grouped by categories. Such grouping can be performed on an arbitrary basis, the same category may include Hosting Plans of different types. You can enter both the plan name and description in different languages. Parallels Business Automation - Standard supports multi-lingual customization for a wide range of fields (website texts, hosting plan names and description, notification templates). You can enter and save texts in any of the languages available for the current Parallels Business Automation - Standard implementation (Bulgarian, Chinese Simplified, Chinese Traditional, Dutch, English, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Polish, Russian, Spanish). To select the language, click one of the buttons with language names tiled below the field you want to enter the text and enter the text in the language selected. For example, click English - and edit the English text, then click German (the English content will be saved and replaced with the German content in the same field) and edit the German text, and so on, for all languages you want to use in your store. Hosting plan category - optional attribute that allows grouping hosting plans. Availability permissions: The Active box defines if any services can be provided in the frame of a hosting plan or not, including offering this plan for sale in the online store and the ability for Provider or Reseller to manually create subscriptions on the basis of such a Hosting Plan from Provider or Reseller Control Centers. This is the most general setting. This checkbox overrides absolutely all other availability settings:
- 130. 130 Managing Hosting Plans If you clear the Active box, this Hosting Plan will be immediately removed both from all online stores. Thus, you can easily and quickly suspend existing Hosting Plan or set availability permissions on creation stage and activate a Hosting Plan at any moment you consider reasonable. If you check the Active box, but remove the hosting plan from the online store (clear the Sell this hosting plan in my HSPstore box) you still can manually create subscriptions (Virtuozzo Container or Plesk client/shared) on the basis of this Hosting Plan. Setting sales permissions including permission to sale it for particular vendor (Provider only, particular Reseller, or all Resellers) and availability of trial period for the Hosting Plan. Note: Creation of Plesk Virtual Node hosting plans is possible for Provider only (i.e., from the Provider Control Center only). Resellers can buy such hosting plans and then manage the purchased node. To sell this hosting plan in your online store, check the Sell this hosting plan in my HSPstore box. To allow Reseller(s) to create hosting plans on the basis of the hosting plan you are now creating, please check the Resellers can create a copy of the current hosting plan box and then adjust the availability of the hosting plan for resellers (set the option button either to All resellers or to Selected reseller only and select this reseller). If you allow Reseller(s) to sell this Hosting Plan with certain trial period, a Reseller in future can decide alone upon providing trial period for his (or her) customers that subscribe for this Hosting Plan. If you did not allow any trial period, then a Reseller cannot establish it on an arbitrary basis. For Virtuozzo Container and Plesk client/shared hosting plan types only: Availability of trial period (the period of time a customer can use services for free, to try it) for a Hosting Plan. It is possible to set the trial period separately for Provider customers and Reseller customers: To set the trial period for Provider: After you check the Sell this hosting plan in my HSPstore box, the trial period related box below becomes active (i.e., you now can check or clear it). Check the Customers may try this hosting plan box and then select the trial period from the relevant drop-down menu below. To set the trial period for Resellers: Just check the Customers of the reseller may try this hosting plan box and select the trial period from the relevant drop-down menu. Note 1: You can create the trial-only hosting plans of Virtuozzo Container and Plesk client/domain type (on page 160). Note 2: Resellers that copy the Provider‟s hosting plan can set the trial period no greater then allowed by Provider. If a Reseller copies the trial-only Hosting Plan, they can offer this plan at store only as trial-only, and use the trial period no greater than allowed by Provider. In this case, a Reseller cannot convert a trial-only Hosting Plan copied from Provider into a pay one. Define, whether the hosting plan will be available from the Control Panel Upgrade Center, for customers to upgrade their subscriptions to this hosting plan. If you clear the Allow upgrade to this plan from Control Panels box, this hosting plan will not be shown in the list of available upgrade offerings. Your customers will be able to only buy this Hosting Plan in your online store.
- 131. Managing Hosting Plans 131 Set the default rules of Renewal order generation. These rules will be inherited by all subscriptions based on this hosting plan. Later the default renewal settings can be changed per subscription, both from the Control Canter and by a customer, from Control Panel: Do not generate renewal orders automatically. Select this option to disable the automated generation of renewal orders at all. Only manual subscription renewal will be possible. Generate renewal orders and try to pay them automatically. Select this option to renew subscriptions automatically. Renewal orders will be generated in accordance with renewal order generation period set in Credit Terms assigned to a customer account and paid automatically using customer payment methods (credit card or bank account) with recurring payments allowed. Generate renewal orders automatically but pay them manually. Select this option to generate renewal orders in accordance with renewal order generation period set in Credit Terms assigned to a customer account, but allow to pay renewal orders only manually. Descriptions of a Hosting Plan that can be used in the HSPstore. Optional step: Attaching custom attributes If at least one group of custom attributes (on page 166) was created and enabled for the selected type of hosting, you can optionally attach some additional services (custom attributes) to a hosting plan: Custom attributes are shown by groups. The group name comes first and the group type (exclusive or selectable) is shown in brackets directly after the group name: Selectable group. When subscribing to a Hosting Plan a customer can select one or more (or all) additional services from the set available. Exclusive group. When subscribing to a Hosting Plan a customer can select only one additional service from the set available. Note: You can change the group type from selectable into exclusive and conversely in the Billing Director - Product Manager - Custom Attributes. Check the boxes next to the custom attributes names to add the custom services provided to customers within the Hosting Plan. You can specify whether the price for a custom service will be included in the Hosting Plan fee or will be offered at the special rate: To set both the setup and monthly fee for a custom service check the box only in the Enabled column next to the custom attribute name. To include the custom service in the Hosting Plan price check both the Enabled and Included boxes next to the custom attribute name. Note: Customers can drop or buy custom attributes that are available for a hosting plan (i.e., custom attributes that are “Enabled” for a Hosting plan) in the same way as Applications, using the Upgrade Center in the Control Panel. Optionally: Adding custom questions to be asked at the HSPstore when a customer subscribes for a hosting plan. Please, select the number of questions from the Create... drop-down menu and click the Display button. The specified number of fields appear. Type questions into the relevant fields and click the Next button.
- 132. 132 Managing Hosting Plans In this section: Creating Virtuozzo Container Hosting Plan ....................................................... 133 Creating Plesk Domain Hosting Plan ................................................................ 138 Creating Plesk Client Hosting Plan ................................................................... 143 Creating Plesk Virtual Node Hosting Plan ......................................................... 146 Creating Domain Registration Hosting Plan ...................................................... 151 Creating Virtuozzo Dedicated Node Hosting Plan ............................................. 154 Creating Plesk Dedicated Node Hosting Plan ................................................... 155 Creating Miscellaneous Hosting Plan ................................................................ 158 Creating and Selling the Trial-Only Hosting Plans ............................................. 160
- 133. Managing Hosting Plans 133 Creating Virtuozzo Container Hosting Plan A Container hosting plan provides Virtuozzo Container with root access or without it, at Provider‟s choice. Containers behave exactly like an isolated stand-alone server. Parallels Business Automation - Standard allows provisioning of Linux and Windows 2003 Advanced Server Containers. To create Container Hosting Plans, you need all the necessary OS and application templates installed properly. Please use the Service Director - Virtuozzo Manager - Applications or OS Templates to install templates. Linux OS templates are shipped together with Parallels Business Automation - Standard. Windows OS template can be registered in Parallels Business Automation - Standard directly from the servers running Parallels Virtuozzo Containers for Windows.. Select the Virtuozzo Container type of hosting. Enter the hosting plan title and other general settings as this described earlier in this guide (on page 129), then follow the wizard: 1 Enter the billing rates: Specify the setup fees for all subscription periods in the Setup fee fields. The setup fee is to be once paid by a customer for subscription creation. Type the subscription fees for all subscription periods in the Recurring fee fields. The recurring fee is to be paid by a customer for a subscription period. In respect to subscription periods for provider and reseller(s), the appropriate checkboxes become enabled in accordance with availability settings made in hosting plan General Settings. Check the relevant checkbox(es) to set subscription periods to be offered at your online store and/or available for resellers. Please note that dedicated hosting plans cannot be resold, so there is no options for resellers in such hosting plans. Select the upgrade calculation fees. Note: When Reseller copies one of hosting plans owned by provider, they can sell this plan only in the frame of subscription periods a provider have defined for resellers. Hosting plan general availability for resellers can be set in a plan General Settings, and subscription periods available for resellers are to be set in a plan Billing Rates. Specify the Container general properties: Select the hardware node platform (OS with Virtuozzo-enabled kernel) from the Platform drop-down menu. The platform selection will automatically define the set of OS templates (i.e., the OS installed in Container) available. Choose the SLM mode you prefer for the Container under creation in the drop-down menu. You can select one of the three options: SLM only resource management; Old-style UBC resource management; Use both UBC and SLM in parallel.
- 134. 134 Managing Hosting Plans At this moment, Virtuozzo SLM manages memory resources, that is the promises of administrators about the amount of memory available to Containers. UBC is another resource managing mechanism implemented in Virtuozzo for Linux versions. In comparison to UBC, SLM is a lot easier to adopt and understand, has less parameters, uses conventional terms and concepts, makes the configuration parameters intuitively clear and close to the notion of RAM size on a stand-alone computer and is more application-friendly in terms of how applications are signalled about memory restrictions and their chances to continue to operate with reduced memory usage or exit gracefully. The Container memory usage computation for SLM uses the same accounting mechanisms as in prior Virtuozzo versions, but combines all types of memory into a single value. The SLM memory limit (slmmemorylimit) parameter fully substitutes the UBC parameters and includes oomguarpages, kmemsize, lockedpages and socket buffer space (tcpsndbuf, tcprcvbuf, othersockbuf). Note: Detailed information on the Container resource management can be found in the Virtuozzo Management of System Resources Administrator‟s Guide (for the old-style UBC parameters administration) and Overview of SLM in Virtuozzo 3.0 for Linux (on the new SLM resources management). Select the OS template (the OS the Container will run) from the OS template drop- down menu. Only for Virtuozzo Container hosting plans: You can check the Name based hosting box to provide name-based Container. Define the availability of root access for the Container (check the Root Access box to allow). This option is only available for IP-based Containers (if the Name based hosting box is unchecked). 2 Set the billable resources rates: The pre-filled prices for resources are taken from the system-wide default prices (on page 85). You can set values for each parameter within the allowable range in the Included value textboxes. The included value defines the limit of resource usage included in a Hosting Plan price. Set the price for resource overusage or resources upgrade in the Cost for additional resource allocation textbox. The maximal value of resource consumption (included or for additional price) is to be specified in the Maximum consumable value field. Note: Do not forget to indicate the price for additional units. It is important for correct recalculating of Customer Account balance in case of Hosting Plan upgrade. 3 If you have the Sitebuilder nodes registered, you can add the Parallels Plesk Sitebuilder service to the hosting plan. Check the Enable Sitebuilder service for this hosting plan box, select the Sitebuilder plan and enter the fees. Please check the applications required for Sitebuilder sites to be published: Parallels Plesk Sitebuilder for Windows 3.2.1 requires: Host Operating System: Parallels Plesk Control Panel for Windows 7.6.1 or greater. Applications: ASP.NET 2.0 included. Parallels Plesk Sitebuilder for Unix 3.0.1 requires:
- 135. Managing Hosting Plans 135 Only for Parallels Plesk Control Panel Unix 8.0.1 and greater: PHP safe_mode to be disabled psa-sb-publish for Plesk to be installed on the Plesk node For Plesk platform: PHP included in hosting plan For Virtuozzo platform: psa-sb-publish, PHP, and Workgroup Administrator Control Panel included in hosting plan. 4 Adjust (if needed) the non-billable Container resource-usage limits (i.e., the Container configuration): 5 Adjust the DNS settings for the Hosting Plan: a Select the domain registration hosting plan that will define the terms of domain registration for the hosting plan from the Domain Registration Hosting Plan drop- down menu. b And from the DNS Template drop-down menu, please select the DNS template (on page 74) that will define the standard set of resource records to be placed into the zone file for all domains registered in the frame of the Hosting Plan you are creating. c Select name servers set to be used for domains registration within this hosting plan from the Name servers set drop-down menu. 6 You can define one or more Hardware Nodes to host Containers created in the frame of a given Hosting Plan: 7 Select applications to be installed or available for installation on the Container: Make an Application available within a Hosting Plan by checking the box next to an Application name (in the Enabled column). In this case, an Application will be offered in the store within the separate Price List, at a special fee, and a customer can buy it or not. In this case, the price for Application(s) selected will be added to Hosting Plan price (fees) in the Order total. And the applications that were not selected by a subscriber will remain available and can be installed by a customer from the Control Panel (after the corresponding invoice is paid). Include an Application in a Hosting Plan price by checking both the boxes next to an Application name in the Enabled column and in the Included column. In this case, an Application is included in Hosting Plan and a subscriber cannot refuse from such an Application when buying a Hosting Plan. However, a customer can uninstall an included application from the Parallels Business Automation - Standard Control Panel, using the Upgrade Center. In this case, the application remains available and can be re-installed by a customer from the Control Panel at any moment without any additional charges. Note that Enabled is the determining setting. If this box is not checked, the relevant box in the Included column is disabled. Parallels Business Automation - Standard allows providing the following Container management tools for customers: Parallels Business Automation - Standard Control Panels, Parallels Power Panel. You may get a warning about RPM packages conflicts or unresolved dependencies. These can be settled immediately by removing/adding the relevant packages or in the properties of an appropriate application template in Service Director > Virtuozzo Manager > Applications.
- 136. 136 Managing Hosting Plans Note: The Parallels Business Automation - Standard Control Panels and the most of the other applications are not available for SuSe or Debian Containers. For such Containers only the Parallels Power Panel and SSH are available. 8 Select licenses: If you sell licenses and have configured a Key Administrator plug-in (on page 55) with one or more license classes available for sale, you are offered to select the license classes and configure license properties of these classes. In this case, to select a license class for sale, check the box next to a License Class name and click the Next button. On the next step, you can see the licenses of the selected classes, each license properties in a separate form, if several licenses are selected, then forms for each of the licenses are shown one-by-one, fill the forms and scroll the screen to configure all licenses. The name of a license class is at the form heading. To activate a license in general, check the Active box. To offer a license for sale in the frame of the hosting plan, check the Sell this license in my HSPstore box. To include a license in the hosting package without the ability for a customer to un- select a license and do not buy it, check the Included box, otherwise, leave this box clear and specify the price for a license. If a license properties allow including additional services and/or additional license keys, then to sell them in a license package, check the box(es) next to a service or an additional key name, if it is possible to specify an additional key capacity, then select the capacity and specify the price. 9 You can optionally attach additional services (custom attributes) to a hosting plan as this described earlier in this guide (on page 129). 10 Select the Plesk Applications to be available for installation inside the Container in the same way as you have selected the Virtuozzo Applications set (step 8). 11 Set the traffic accounting: To enable traffic accounting by classes (on page 66) for this hosting plan, check the Enable this traffic class for this hosting plan box at a traffic class form. Important: Please keep in mind that Containers traffic accounting for Parallels Virtuozzo Containers for Windows is possible only by the Class 2. The Create an overusage invoice at the end of every billing month instead of limiting traffic with the included value checkbox serves for switching the traffic accounting from the metered mode (the box checked) to the non-metered mode (the box cleared). The metered traffic accounting mode allows using traffic over the Included amount but up to the Maximum amount and paying for the traffic used over the Included amount at the end of month. The non-metered traffic accounting mode allows using traffic only up to the Included amount and in case a customer needs more traffic, he/she must order more at an additional fee, but no greater than the Maximum amount; after an order is paid, traffic will be provided. To set the traffic limits and prices, specify the values in the fields next to a traffic type name: Select the units to measure traffic from the Units drop-down menu. If you do not want to limit traffic for the hosting plan subscribers, check the Unlim box next to the corresponding traffic type. If you want to set limits and prices, clear the Unlim box and enter limits and rates.
- 137. Managing Hosting Plans 137 Enter the monthly traffic amount included in the hosting plan price into the Included amount field. Enter the monthly traffic limit into the Maximum amount field. This will be the maximal traffic value allowed for customers subscribed for this hosting plan. Enter the price per additional traffic unit (selected from the Units drop-down menu) into the Overuse rate/Cost for additional field. 12 Add custom questions to be asked at the HSPstore when a customer subscribes for a hosting plan as this described earlier in this guide (on page 129). 13 Review the hosting plan parameters and finish its creation.
- 138. 138 Managing Hosting Plans Creating Plesk Domain Hosting Plan The Plesk Domain hosting plan provides the website (with mailboxes, databases, etc.) and the web hosting control panel for customers. Select the Plesk domain type of hosting. Enter the hosting plan title and other general settings as this described earlier in this guide (on page 129), then follow the wizard: 1 Enter the billing rates: Specify the setup fees for all subscription periods in the Setup fee fields. The setup fee is to be once paid by a customer for subscription creation. Type the subscription fees for all subscription periods in the Recurring fee fields. The recurring fee is to be paid by a customer for a subscription period. In respect to subscription periods for provider and reseller(s), the appropriate checkboxes become enabled in accordance with availability settings made in hosting plan General Settings. Check the relevant checkbox(es) to set subscription periods to be offered at your online store and/or available for resellers. Please note that dedicated hosting plans cannot be resold, so there is no options for resellers in such hosting plans. Select the upgrade calculation fees. Note: When Reseller copies one of hosting plans owned by provider, they can sell this plan only in the frame of subscription periods a provider have defined for resellers. Hosting plan general availability for resellers can be set in a plan General Settings, and subscription periods available for resellers are to be set in a plan Billing Rates. 2 Adjust the Plesk Platform settings: a If you have both Unix and Windows Plesk Hardware Nodes, you can select the host OS for the Plesk domain (Unix or Windows) from the Platform drop-down menu. b Select the hosting type and define whether the website options will be available for the Hosting Plan or not. Select the type of hosting to provide from the Physical hosting type drop-down menu: To provide the fill-featured hosting (website, databases, mail, etc), select Physical hosting. Physical hosting type cannot later be changed into forwarding or not set hosting type. To provide the standard domain forwarding, select Standard forwarding. Standard Forwarding redirects a domain to a different URL with the destination URL appearing in the browser address window. Web content is stored somewhere outside Plesk. Later the hosting plan can be upgraded from forwarding hosting type to physical hosting. To provide the frame domain forwarding, select Frame forwarding. Frame Forwarding redirects a domain to a different URL while keeping the original domain name in the browser address window. Web content is stored somewhere outside Plesk. Later the hosting plan can be upgraded from forwarding hosting type to physical hosting.
- 139. Managing Hosting Plans 139 To provide the Plesk domain without hosting at all (only domain registration, no mail, no website and databases, no forwarding), select Do not set. In this case, there will be no Services/Applications selection step in the Hosting Plan creation wizard. This type of service is similar to the No physical hosting option in the previous product version. This undefined hosting type was added to Parallels Business Automation - Standard to reach the full compatibility with Plesk original services. The no-hosting subscription can later be upgraded to any of the services available for Plesk domains, i.e., physical hosting, frame forwarding, or standard forwarding. a For Windows platform, select the version of Microsoft ASP.NET from the ASP.NET runtime version menu. If on the Plesk services selection step of the plan creation wizard you will enable Microsoft ASP.NET support, customers will use this particular version of Microsoft ASP.NET. b For Windows platform, select the version of PHP from the PHP version drop-down menu. c Select the Web statistics engine a customer will use from the Web statistics engine menu. If on the Plesk services selection step of the plan creation wizard you will enable Web statistics support, customers will use this particular web statistics engine. d To assign a dedicated IP address to a Plesk Domain right after a subscription creation, check the Auto-assign dedicated IP box. The dedicated IP assignment means that the internal requests addressed to the Plesk domain come directly to a Plesk domain. If the current IP address is shared, then the internal requests addressed to a Plesk domain come through the Plesk server IP address and then the request is redirected to the internal IP address assigned to a Plesk domain. 3 Set the quotas and prices for services provided: The pre-filled prices for resources are taken from the system-wide default prices (on page 85). You can set values for each parameter within the allowable range in the Included value textboxes. The included value defines the limit of resource usage included in the hosting plan price. And in the Cost for additional resource allocation textbox you can enter the price for resource overusage or resources upgrade. To set the resource value to unlimited, check the Do not limit this resource box on the corresponding resource form. Disk space quota. The total amount of disk space that can be occupied by a domain. It includes disk space occupied by all files related to website contents, databases, applications, mailboxes, log files and backup files. This is the so-called soft quota: when it is exceeded, domain names and web sites are not suspended automatically, only the appropriate notices are sent to a corresponding Plesk client administrator and the resource overage is indicated by a special icon. Number of web users. A web user is a user account within web server. It is used to define locations for personalized web pages with individual FTP access. The result of web user creation is a subdirectory within a Plesk domain (e.g., domain.com/~webuser). For Plesk Unix Platform only: Number of databases. The number of databases a customer is allowed to create or manage on a Plesk domain using the Plesk Control Panel tools. Number of mailboxes. The number of mailboxes allowed for creation on a domain.
- 140. 140 Managing Hosting Plans Mailbox quota. The maximal size for any mailbox created on a domain. Number of mail redirects. The number of mail forwarding settings allowed for a domain. Number of mail groups. The number of e-mail addresses groups under a single e-mail address. Mail sent to this single e-mail address is sent to all addresses in a group as well. Number of mail autoresponders. The number of autoresponders that allow you to instantly respond to any message with a stock reply. Number of mailing lists. A mailing list is a list of e-mail addresses identified by a single name. Mail list provides more options than a mail group. Number of Java applications. Number of Java applications allowed for installation inside a Plesk domain. Number of subdomains. The number of subdomains (not a domain registration, but a web pages) allowed for creation inside a Plesk domain. Dedicated IPs. The number of dedicated IP addresses available for a Plesk domain. Please note that this setting does not provide the dedicated IP assignment right after a Plesk domain creation. This setting just provides the possibility for a Plesk domain user to switch a Plesk domain from shared IP address to dedicated one. Hard disk space quota. A strict disk space quota set on an operating system level. The quota limits the disk space occupied by files owned by a user, for example the files uploaded via ftp. A domain user is not allowed to exceed this quota at all.This is the so-called hard quota that will not allow writing more files to the web space when the limit is reached. At attempt to write files, users will get the „Out of disk space‟ error. Hard quotas should be enabled in the Plesk server‟s operating system. Maximum Number of Domain Aliases. The maximal number of domain aliases on a domain. This resource is billed because zone files are created for Plesk domain aliases in Parallels Business Automation - Standard DNS. Number of domains with DNS hosting provided. The number of domains that can have zones in HSP DNS. For Plesk Windows Platform Only: MySQL disk space quota. Total disk size allocated for all MySQL database on a domain. MSSQL disk space quota. Total disk size allocated for all Microsoft SQL databases on a domain. Maximum number of MSSQL databases. Maximal number of Microsoft SQL databases on a domain. Maximum number of shared SSL links. Shared SSL is a means of secure Web server access without requiring users to purchase a digital key. In this case, only one domain should have a real SSL certificate. In Plesk, such domain is called Master SSL Domain. Other domains, which are set up to use Shared SSL will use its resources. After Plesk Administrator has defined the Master SSL Domain, the ability to set shared SSL links can be given Plesk clients and then a Plesk client administrator will be able to enable the Shared SSL support on per-domain basis. Please enter the maximum allowed number of shared SSL links on a domain. Number of MySQL databases. Maximal number of MySQL databases on a domain.
- 141. Managing Hosting Plans 141 Total mailboxes quota. The total disk space allocated for all mailboxes created on a domain. Maximum number of additional FTP accounts. Displays the maximum number of additional FTP accounts allowed for Plesk domain. Maximum number of Microsoft FrontPage subaccounts. The maximum number of additional Microsoft FrontPage accounts. Maximum number of ODBC connections. The maximum number of ODBC connections that can be used on Plesk domain. Note: Do not forget to indicate the price for additional units. It is important for correct recalculating of customer account balance in case of Hosting Plan upgrade. 4 Adjust the DNS settings for the Hosting Plan: a Select the domain registration hosting plan that will define the terms of domain registration for the hosting plan from the Domain Registration Hosting Plan drop- down menu. b And from the DNS Template drop-down menu, please select the DNS template (on page 74) that will define the standard set of resource records to be placed into the zone file for all domains registered in the frame of the Hosting Plan you are creating. c Select name servers set to be used for domains registration within this hosting plan from the Name servers set drop-down menu. 5 Set the permissions allowable for Plesk domain administrator. To grant a Plesk domain administrator the right to perform an action under a Plesk domain, check the box(es) next to the name of action(s). Note: For Plesk Unix platform, the DNS zone management permission not only allows a Plesk domain administrator to manage domain zone files, but makes the Plesk DNS a primary source for DNS synchronization between Plesk and Parallels Business Automation - Standard. If this box is checked, the changes made to domain zones by a customer from Control Panel will be automatically applied to the Parallels Business Automation - Standard DNS, and not conversely. 6 Select services and site applications to be available for Plesk domain administrator: Make a service or an application available within a Hosting Plan by checking the box next to an application name (in the Enabled column). In this case, an application will be offered in the store within the separate Price List, at a special fee, and a customer can buy it or not. In this case, the price for application(s) selected will be added to Hosting Plan price (fees) in the Order total. And the applications that were not selected by a subscriber will remain available and can be installed by a customer from the Control Panel (after the corresponding invoice is paid). Include a service or an application in a Hosting Plan price by checking both the boxes next to an application name in the Enabled column and in the Included column. In this case, an application is included in Hosting Plan and a subscriber cannot unselect such a service or an application when buying a Hosting Plan. However, a customer can uninstall such an application from the Control Panel. In this case, the application remains available and can be re-installed by a customer from the Control Panel at any moment without any additional charges.
- 142. 142 Managing Hosting Plans Note 1: Enabled - is the determining setting. If this box is not checked, the relevant box in the Included column is disabled. Note 2: Later you can easily add or exclude applications/services (on page 161) for a Hosting Plan. Note 3: The set of site applications available for the hosting plan is subject to the Applications Vault settings (on page 252). 7 If you have the Sitebuilder nodes registered, you can add the Parallels Plesk Sitebuilder service to the hosting plan. Check the Enable Sitebuilder service for this hosting plan box, select the Sitebuilder plan and enter the fees. Please check the applications required for Sitebuilder sites to be published: Parallels Plesk Sitebuilder for Windows 3.2.1 requires: Host Operating System: Parallels Plesk Control Panel for Windows 7.6.1 or greater. Applications: ASP.NET 2.0 included. Parallels Plesk Sitebuilder for Unix 3.0.1 requires: Only for Parallels Plesk Control Panel Unix 8.0.1 and greater: PHP safe_mode to be disabled psa-sb-publish for Plesk to be installed on the Plesk node For Plesk platform: PHP included in hosting plan For Virtuozzo platform: psa-sb-publish, PHP, and Workgroup Administrator Control Panel included in hosting plan. 8 You can define one or more Hardware Nodes to host Plesk Domain being created for this Hosting Plan: 9 You can optionally attach additional services (custom attributes) to a hosting plan as this described earlier in this guide (on page 129). 10 Set the traffic accounting for the hosting plan. Please note that for Plesk hosting plans only Class 2 (match all IP addresses) is applicable. To enable traffic accounting by classes (on page 66) for this hosting plan, check the Enable this traffic class for this hosting plan box at a traffic class form. Important: Please keep in mind that Containers traffic accounting for Parallels Virtuozzo Containers for Windows is possible only by the Class 2. The Create an overusage invoice at the end of every billing month instead of limiting traffic with the included value checkbox serves for switching the traffic accounting from the metered mode (the box checked) to the non-metered mode (the box cleared). The metered traffic accounting mode allows using traffic over the Included amount but up to the Maximum amount and paying for the traffic used over the Included amount at the end of month. The non-metered traffic accounting mode allows using traffic only up to the Included amount and in case a customer needs more traffic, he/she must order more at an additional fee, but no greater than the Maximum amount; after an order is paid, traffic will be provided. To set the traffic limits and prices, specify the values in the fields next to a traffic type name:
- 143. Managing Hosting Plans 143 Select the units to measure traffic from the Units drop-down menu. If you do not want to limit traffic for the hosting plan subscribers, check the Unlim box next to the corresponding traffic type. If you want to set limits and prices, clear the Unlim box and enter limits and rates. Enter the monthly traffic amount included in the hosting plan price into the Included amount field. Enter the monthly traffic limit into the Maximum amount field. This will be the maximal traffic value allowed for customers subscribed for this hosting plan. Enter the price per additional traffic unit (selected from the Units drop-down menu) into the Overuse rate/Cost for additional field. 11 Add custom questions to be asked at the HSPstore when a customer subscribes for a hosting plan as this described earlier in this guide (on page 129). Review the hosting plan parameters and finish the process. Creating Plesk Client Hosting Plan The Plesk client hosting plan provides the ability of managing Plesk domains. Select the Plesk Client type of hosting. Enter the hosting plan title and other general settings as this described earlier in this guide (on page 129), then follow the wizard: 1 Enter the billing rates: Specify the setup fees for all subscription periods in the Setup fee fields. The setup fee is to be once paid by a customer for subscription creation. Type the subscription fees for all subscription periods in the Recurring fee fields. The recurring fee is to be paid by a customer for a subscription period. In respect to subscription periods for provider and reseller(s), the appropriate checkboxes become enabled in accordance with availability settings made in hosting plan General Settings. Check the relevant checkbox(es) to set subscription periods to be offered at your online store and/or available for resellers. Please note that dedicated hosting plans cannot be resold, so there is no options for resellers in such hosting plans. Select the upgrade calculation fees. Note: When Reseller copies one of hosting plans owned by provider, they can sell this plan only in the frame of subscription periods a provider have defined for resellers. Hosting plan general availability for resellers can be set in a plan General Settings, and subscription periods available for resellers are to be set in a plan Billing Rates. 2 Select the host operating system that runs Plesk Client from the Platform menu. 3 Set the billable resources rates (monthly fees): The pre-filled prices for resources are taken from the system-wide default prices (on page 85). You can set values for each parameter within the allowable range in the Included value textboxes. The included value defines the limit of resource usage included in the hosting plan price. And in the Cost for additional textbox you can enter the price for resource overusage or resources upgrade.
- 144. 144 Managing Hosting Plans Note: Do not forget to indicate the price for additional units. It is important for correct recalculating of customer account balance in case of Hosting Plan upgrade. To set the resource value to unlimited, check the Do not limit this resource box on the corresponding resource form. 4 Specify the DNS settings: a Select the domain registration hosting plan that will define the terms of domain registration for the hosting plan from the Domain Registration Hosting Plan drop- down menu. b And from the DNS Template drop-down menu, please select the DNS template (on page 74) that will define the standard set of resource records to be placed into the zone file for all domains registered in the frame of the Hosting Plan you are creating. c Select name servers set to be used for domains registration within this hosting plan from the Name servers set drop-down menu. 5 Set the permissions allowable for Plesk Client account owner. To grant a Plesk Client administrator the right to perform an action under a Plesk domain, check the box(es) next to the name of action(s). Note: For Plesk Unix platform, the DNS zone management permission not only allows a Plesk client administrator to manage domain zone files, but makes the Plesk DNS a primary source for DNS synchronization between Plesk and Parallels Business Automation - Standard. If this box is checked, the changes made to domain zones by a customer from Control Panel will be automatically applied to the Parallels Business Automation - Standard DNS. If DNS zone management is disabled (the box is cleared), then Plesk DNS is disabled and a domain is hosted in Parallels Business Automation - Standard DNS only. 6 Select site applications to be available for Plesk domains created under the Plesk client: Make an application available within a Hosting Plan by checking the box next to an application name (in the Enabled column). In this case, an application will be offered in the store within the separate Price List, at a special fee, and a customer can buy it or not. In this case, the price for application(s) selected will be added to Hosting Plan price (fees) in the Order total. And the applications that were not selected by a subscriber will remain available and can be installed by a customer from the Control Panel (after the corresponding invoice is paid). Include an application in a Hosting Plan price by checking both the boxes next to an application name in the Enabled column and in the Included column. In this case, an application is included in Hosting Plan and a subscriber cannot unselect such an application when buying a Hosting Plan. However, a customer can refuse from such an application from the Control Panel. In this case, the application remains available and can be re-installed by a customer from the Control Panel at any moment without any additional charges. Note 1: Enabled - is the determining setting. If this box is not checked, the relevant box in the Included column is disabled. Note 2: Later you can easily add or exclude applications (on page 161) for a Hosting Plan.
- 145. Managing Hosting Plans 145 Note 3: The set of site applications available for the hosting plan is subject to the Applications Vault settings (on page 252). 7 If you have the Sitebuilder nodes registered, you can add the Parallels Plesk Sitebuilder service to the hosting plan. Check the Enable Sitebuilder service for this hosting plan box, select the Sitebuilder plan and enter the fees. Please check the applications required for Sitebuilder sites to be published: Parallels Plesk Sitebuilder for Windows 3.2.1 requires: Host Operating System: Parallels Plesk Control Panel for Windows 7.6.1 or greater. Applications: ASP.NET 2.0 included. Parallels Plesk Sitebuilder for Unix 3.0.1 requires: Only for Parallels Plesk Control Panel Unix 8.0.1 and greater: PHP safe_mode to be disabled psa-sb-publish for Plesk to be installed on the Plesk node For Plesk platform: PHP included in hosting plan For Virtuozzo platform: psa-sb-publish, PHP, and Workgroup Administrator Control Panel included in hosting plan. 8 You can define one or more Hardware Nodes to host Plesk Clients being created for this Hosting Plan: 9 You can optionally attach additional services (custom attributes) to a hosting plan as this described earlier in this guide (on page 129). 10 Set the traffic accounting for the hosting plan. Please note that for Plesk hosting plans only Class 2 (match all IP addresses) is applicable. To enable traffic accounting by classes (on page 66) for this hosting plan, check the Enable this traffic class for this hosting plan box at a traffic class form. Important: Please keep in mind that Containers traffic accounting for Parallels Virtuozzo Containers for Windows is possible only by the Class 2. The Create an overusage invoice at the end of every billing month instead of limiting traffic with the included value checkbox serves for switching the traffic accounting from the metered mode (the box checked) to the non-metered mode (the box cleared). The metered traffic accounting mode allows using traffic over the Included amount but up to the Maximum amount and paying for the traffic used over the Included amount at the end of month. The non-metered traffic accounting mode allows using traffic only up to the Included amount and in case a customer needs more traffic, he/she must order more at an additional fee, but no greater than the Maximum amount; after an order is paid, traffic will be provided. To set the traffic limits and prices, specify the values in the fields next to a traffic type name: Select the units to measure traffic from the Units drop-down menu. If you do not want to limit traffic for the hosting plan subscribers, check the Unlim box next to the corresponding traffic type. If you want to set limits and prices, clear the Unlim box and enter limits and rates.
- 146. 146 Managing Hosting Plans Enter the monthly traffic amount included in the hosting plan price into the Included amount field. Enter the monthly traffic limit into the Maximum amount field. This will be the maximal traffic value allowed for customers subscribed for this hosting plan. Enter the price per additional traffic unit (selected from the Units drop-down menu) into the Overuse rate/Cost for additional field. 11 Add custom questions to be asked at the HSPstore when a customer subscribes for a hosting plan as this described earlier in this guide (on page 129). Review the hosting plan parameters and finish the process. Creating Plesk Virtual Node Hosting Plan The Plesk Virtual Node hosting plan provides the full-featured Plesk server running in Virtuozzo Container. A subscriber gets the Plesk Server Administrator permissions with the ability of creating Plesk Client accounts and Plesk Domains. The number of Plesk clients allowed for creation on the Container-based Plesk server is up to the Plesk Licence certificate installed on the Plesk server. Note: This type of hosting plan can be sold to resellers only. The main difference of Plesk Virtual Node from Virtuozzo Container hosting is in post- Container creation actions. For regular Virtuozzo Container Parallels Business Automation - Standard will just create a Container and install all selected application templates into it. In case of Plesk Virtual Node the same initial steps will be taken but after Container is created it will be automatically registered in Parallels Business Automation - Standard as a Virtual Plesk Node under the reseller account. As such reseller will receive a full-managed Plesk node in their Reseller Control Center in just a couple clicks. Virtual Plesk node registration is not needed for regular customers who just want to get a server with pre-installed Plesk control panel. Important: The Container created for the Plesk Virtual Node hosting plan is a special one. For a HSP to create the Plesk Virtual Node hosting plans for Linux, the special OS template and applications must be installed and enabled, namely: The special OS template compatible with the Plesk Server Administrator (PSA) application. The PSA application itself and applications required for PSA: Apache SSL for Apache Secure FrontPage Server Extensions for Apache PHP MySQL server Note: To create a Plesk Virtual Node hosting plan for Windows no special applications are needed.
- 147. Managing Hosting Plans 147 In addition, the Parallels Business Automation - Standard Control Panel applications (System Administrator and Workgroup Administrator ones) are not available for installation inside the Plesk Virtual Node (as design). However, a customer, who subscribed for such a hosting plan, can log in to the Parallels Business Automation - Standard Control Panel with System, My Account, Upgrade Center, and Help&Support tabs available. In this case, the System tab provides the limited ability of managing the Plesk Virtual Node, namely, view server status, manage DNS, manage IP addresses, and install/uninstall applications included in a subscription. Other tabs provide the full set of tools, similar to the set available for an ordinary Container. In respect to managing a Plesk Virtual Node as a Plesk physical server, a customer can log in to the PSA Control Panel using the conventional Plesk logging credentials (specific URL, login, and password). Resellers can manage Plesk Virtual Node both as a dedicated Hardware Node and Container using the Parallels Business Automation - Standard Reseller Control Center and Control Panel. And to perform Plesk administrative tasks, resellers can use PSA Control Panel. As soon as a customer buys the Plesk Virtual Node hosting plan and pays the order, services provisioning starts in the following order (all phases pass automatically): 1 Container creation. 2 Installation of all the applications. The process lasts until all the applications (and especially, the PSA) will be successfully installed. The subscription is in the pending state. 3 Container registration as a new Hardware Node. On this phase it is very important that the IP address assigned to the Container is resolved correctly, because Parallels Business Automation - Standard needs to establish connection with a Hardware Node to register it. 4 Subscription activation. Note: It is not possible to delete the Plesk Virtual Node subscription as soon as at least one Plesk domain is created on the Plesk Virtual Node. And such subscription cannot be terminated. Select the Plesk Virtual Node type of hosting. Enter the hosting plan title and other general settings as this described earlier in this guide (on page 129), then follow the wizard: 1 Enter the billing rates: Specify the setup fees for all subscription periods in the Setup fee fields. The setup fee is to be once paid by a customer for subscription creation. Type the subscription fees for all subscription periods in the Recurring fee fields. The recurring fee is to be paid by a customer for a subscription period. Note: The Plesk Virtual Node hosting plans are intended for sale by Provider only. Thus, there are no options for setting sales periods for Resellers. 2 Specify the configuration of Virtuozzo Container that will run the Plesk server:
- 148. 148 Managing Hosting Plans Select the hardware node platform (OS with Virtuozzo-enabled kernel) from the Platform drop-down menu. The platform selection will automatically define the set of OS templates (i.e., the OS installed in Container) available. Choose the SLM mode you prefer for the Container under creation in the drop-down menu. You can select one of the three options: SLM only resource management; Old-style UBC resource management; Use both UBC and SLM in parallel. At this moment, Virtuozzo SLM manages memory resources, that is the promises of administrators about the amount of memory available to Containers. UBC is another resource managing mechanism implemented in Virtuozzo for Linux versions. In comparison to UBC, SLM is a lot easier to adopt and understand, has less parameters, uses conventional terms and concepts, makes the configuration parameters intuitively clear and close to the notion of RAM size on a stand-alone computer and is more application-friendly in terms of how applications are signalled about memory restrictions and their chances to continue to operate with reduced memory usage or exit gracefully. The Container memory usage computation for SLM uses the same accounting mechanisms as in prior Virtuozzo versions, but combines all types of memory into a single value. The SLM memory limit (slmmemorylimit) parameter fully substitutes the UBC parameters and includes oomguarpages, kmemsize, lockedpages and socket buffer space (tcpsndbuf, tcprcvbuf, othersockbuf). Note: Detailed information on the Container resource management can be found in the Virtuozzo Management of System Resources Administrator‟s Guide (for the old-style UBC parameters administration) and Overview of SLM in Virtuozzo 3.0 for Linux (on the new SLM resources management). Select the OS template (the OS the Container will run) from the OS template drop- down menu. Only for Virtuozzo Container hosting plans: You can check the Name based hosting box to provide name-based Container. Define the availability of root access for the Container (check the Root Access box to allow). This option is only available for IP-based Containers (if the Name based hosting box is unchecked). Note: Name-based Containers cannot be used for Plesk Virtual Node type of hosting plans since the Container with Plesk server inside must have an external static IP address. 3 Set the billable resources rates (monthly fees): The pre-filled prices for resources are taken from the system-wide default prices (on page 85). You can set values for each parameter within the allowable range in the Included value textboxes. The included value defines the limit of resource usage included in the hosting plan price. And in the Cost for additional resource allocation textbox you can enter the price for resource overusage or resources upgrade. Do not forget to indicate the price for additional units. It is important for correct recalculating of customer account balance in case of Hosting Plan upgrade. Important: Please make sure that at least one static IP address is allocated for Container. This is critical for future Plesk Virtual Node network connectivity.
- 149. Managing Hosting Plans 149 Number of static IP addresses. You can define only static allocation within each IP pool. Static IP addresses are allocated permanently and can be released only manually. Number of backups. The number of server-side node backups a customer is allowed to create. Total size of all backups. The maximal total size of all server-side backups a customer can have. Number of domains with DNS hosting provided. The number of domains that can have zones in HSP DNS. Disk space quota. Disk size allocated for a Plesk virtual node. CPU usage. This is a positive integer number that determines the minimal guaranteed share of the CPU time the Virtuozzo Container hosting a Plesk node will receive. The CPU usage for VEs is measured in a special units called cpuunits. Please, refer to the Virtuozzo user documentation for more details regarding VEs CPU share and other Virtuozzo Container specific parameters. 4 Review and if needed, adjust the Container configuration. The default values of Container resource parameters are shown next to the fields where you can key in the new values. The allowable ranges for each parameter is shown in the column to the right. Please refer to the Virtuozzo user documentation for detailed description of each Container parameter. Note: We recommend adjusting Container parameters to a configuration that corresponds to hardware requirements for Plesk server. 5 Adjust the DNS settings for the Hosting Plan: a Select the domain registration hosting plan that will define the terms of domain registration for the hosting plan from the Domain Registration Hosting Plan drop- down menu. b And from the DNS Template drop-down menu, please select the DNS template (on page 74) that will define the standard set of resource records to be placed into the zone file for all domains registered in the frame of the Hosting Plan you are creating. c Select name servers set to be used for domains registration within this hosting plan from the Name servers set drop-down menu. 6 You can define one or more Hardware Nodes to host the Plesk Virtual Node created for this Hosting Plan: 7 Select applications to be available for installation inside the Container: Make an Application available within a Hosting Plan by checking the box next to an Application name (in the Enabled column). In this case, an Application will be offered in the store within the separate Price List, at a special fee, and a customer can buy it or not. In this case, the price for Application(s) selected will be added to Hosting Plan price (fees) in the Order total. And the applications that were not selected by a subscriber will remain available and can be installed by a customer from the Control Panel (after the corresponding invoice is paid).
- 150. 150 Managing Hosting Plans Include an Application in a Hosting Plan price by checking both the boxes next to an Application name in the Enabled column and in the Included column. In this case, an Application is included in Hosting Plan and a subscriber cannot refuse from such an Application when buying a Hosting Plan. However, a customer can uninstall an included application from the Parallels Business Automation - Standard Control Panel, using the Upgrade Center. In this case, the application remains available and can be re-installed by a customer from the Control Panel at any moment without any additional charges. Note that Enabled is the determining setting. If this box is not checked, the relevant box in the Included column is disabled. Parallels Business Automation - Standard allows providing the following Container management tools for customers: Parallels Business Automation - Standard Control Panels, Parallels Power Panel. Note: For Container to run the Plesk server the Plesk Server Administrator (PSA) application is required. And this application is already selected by default. Moreover, PSA must be both enabled and included, so that a customer could not unintentionally unselect it when subscribing for the hosting plan. And PSA, in its turn requires some other applications (e.g., Apache). All the required applications are selected by default. If you do not select the required applications and try to proceed with hosting plan creation, you will be prompted, which applications are absent. 8 Select licenses to sell within the hosting plan: If you sell licenses and have configured a Key Administrator plug-in (on page 55) with one or more license classes available for sale, you are offered to select the license classes and configure license properties of these classes. In this case, to select a license class for sale, check the box next to a License Class name and click the Next button. On the next step, you can see the licenses of the selected classes, each license properties in a separate form, if several licenses are selected, then forms for each of the licenses are shown one-by-one, fill the forms and scroll the screen to configure all licenses. The name of a license class is at the form heading. To activate a license in general, check the Active box. To offer a license for sale in the frame of the hosting plan, check the Sell this license in my HSPstore box. To include a license in the hosting package without the ability for a customer to un- select a license and do not buy it, check the Included box, otherwise, leave this box clear and specify the price for a license. If a license properties allow including additional services and/or additional license keys, then to sell them in a license package, check the box(es) next to a service or an additional key name, if it is possible to specify an additional key capacity, then select the capacity and specify the price. 9 You can optionally attach additional services (custom attributes) to a hosting plan as this described earlier in this guide (on page 129). 10 Set the traffic accounting for the Container: To enable traffic accounting by classes (on page 66) for this hosting plan, check the Enable this traffic class for this hosting plan box at a traffic class form. Important: Please keep in mind that Containers traffic accounting for Parallels Virtuozzo Containers for Windows is possible only by the Class 2.
- 151. Managing Hosting Plans 151 The Create an overusage invoice at the end of every billing month instead of limiting traffic with the included value checkbox serves for switching the traffic accounting from the metered mode (the box checked) to the non-metered mode (the box cleared). The metered traffic accounting mode allows using traffic over the Included amount but up to the Maximum amount and paying for the traffic used over the Included amount at the end of month. The non-metered traffic accounting mode allows using traffic only up to the Included amount and in case a customer needs more traffic, he/she must order more at an additional fee, but no greater than the Maximum amount; after an order is paid, traffic will be provided. To set the traffic limits and prices, specify the values in the fields next to a traffic type name: Select the units to measure traffic from the Units drop-down menu. If you do not want to limit traffic for the hosting plan subscribers, check the Unlim box next to the corresponding traffic type. If you want to set limits and prices, clear the Unlim box and enter limits and rates. Enter the monthly traffic amount included in the hosting plan price into the Included amount field. Enter the monthly traffic limit into the Maximum amount field. This will be the maximal traffic value allowed for customers subscribed for this hosting plan. Enter the price per additional traffic unit (selected from the Units drop-down menu) into the Overuse rate/Cost for additional field. 11 Add custom questions to be asked at the HSPstore when a customer subscribes for a hosting plan as this described earlier in this guide (on page 129). Review the hosting plan parameters and finish the process. Creating Domain Registration Hosting Plan The domain-only hosting type provides domain registration using one of domain registration plug-ins (on page 68) available in the Parallels Business Automation - Standard. A customer can manage a domain using the Parallels Business Automation - Standard Control Panel. To create the domain registration hosting plan, go to the Billing Director - Product Manager - Hosting Plans and click the New Hosting Plan button. Select the Domain Registration type of hosting. Enter the hosting plan title and other general settings as this described earlier in this guide (on page 129), then follow the wizard: 1 Select which top level domains (TLDs) will be available within the hosting plan for domains registration and assign the active registrars: a Select TLDs for domains registration: To activate domains registration in all TLDs available, check the Select/unselect all box. To allow domains registration in particular TLDs, clear the Select/unselect all box and check the boxes next to TLDs you want to allow domains registration in.
- 152. 152 Managing Hosting Plans b Set active registrar for each TLD you have selected: Select the registrar from the drop-down menu next to a TLD name. Note that to select a registrar, you must first activate a TLD. 2 Set the domain registration retail prices for each of TLDs you have selected: Note: Domain registration periods are shown in accordance with the selection you have made for each TLD for the plug-in you have selected on the previous step (1). Registrar fees for each registration period are shown below or next to the fields you enter your prices. Domain transfer and WHOIS Privacy settings are also shown only for TLDs you have allow transfer in a corresponding domain plug-in configuration, in Domain Manager > Plug-Ins > select plug-in > select TLDs tab. a Select domain registration period to sell and set the retail price for this period: To sell a registration period, check the box next to this period. After this, the fields where you can enter retail prices will be activated. Enter the one-time fee for domain registration into the fields entitled Registration fee. Enter the recurring fee for domain registration into the fields entitled Renew fee. b Specify the availability of transferring domains registered in a TLD and WHOIS privacy: Note: Domains transfer and WHOIS privacy service options are shown within a hosting plan setup only in case a domain registration plug-in selected for a TLD supports this service and if WHOIS privacy and transfer is enabled for this TLD in a plug-in setup (Service Director > Domain Manager > Plug-ins > TLDs tab within a plug-in settings). The most of plug-ins support domain transfer, but only several plug-ins support WHOIS privacy, at least eNom, MIT, and SRSplus ones do. In addition, WHOIS privacy is supported not for all TLDs, but typically for .net .com, org, in some cases, for .biz as well. As for the other domain registration plug-ins, please contact support on this issue. To allow domains transfer, check the Allow transfer box. After this, the field where you can enter the transfer fee becomes activated. Enter the one-time fee for domain transfer into the Transfer fee field. c Set the availability of WHOIS information privacy. When one registers a domain name, ICANN requires that his/her address, e-mail and phone number be published in the public WHOIS database which is available for anybody to view on the Web. Private Registration hides a customer personal information from public view and keeps this information private: To offer a WHOIS information privacy service in the frame of the hosting plan, check the Enable WHOIS Privacy box. If you do not want to sell this service, clear this box. After you check this box, the field where you can enter the WHOIS Privacy charge rate transfer fee becomes activated. Enter the yearly fee for keeping the customer information private into the WHOIS Privacy charge rate per year field. 3 Adjust the DNS settings for the Hosting Plan:
- 153. Managing Hosting Plans 153 a For all hosting plan types except for the Domain Registration ones: Re- assign domain registration hosting plan that defines prices and other conditions of domains registration within this hosting package. To this effect, you can select another domain registration hosting plan from the Domain Registration Hosting Plan drop-down menu. This selection is possible only if you have more than one domain registration hosting plan. b For Reseller Control Center only, for COPIED Domain Registration hosting plans only: The Synchronize DNS checkbox allows specifying, whether DNS changes made by provider for a source hosting plan will be automatically synchronized with this coied hosting plan settings. If this box checked, then Provider DNS changes will be synchronized, if this box is cleared, changed made by Provider will not be synchronized, and hosting plan configuration will remain as it was by the moment of copying. c Select the name servers set (on page 76) for a new domain registration from the Name servers set drop-down menu. All domains purchased in the frame of the new Hosting Plan will be registered using name servers from the name servers set selected. d From the DNS Template drop-down menu, please select the DNS template (on page 74) that will define the standard set of resource records to be placed into the zone file for all domains registered or subdomains created in the frame of the Hosting Plan. Enter the price for zone file creation for subdomains created in your default domains into the DNS hosting fee if a subdomain is created in your default domain field.Enter the domain zone file creation fee in all the other cases into the DNS hosting fee in other cases different from the two mentioned ones field. For example, here you can enter the DNS hosting fee to be charged if, for example a subdomain is created in a customer‟s domain registered in Parallels Business Automation - Standard or elsewhere. 4 You can optionally attach additional services (custom attributes) to a hosting plan as this described earlier in this guide (on page 129). 5 Add custom questions to be asked at the HSPstore when a customer subscribes for a hosting plan as this described earlier in this guide (on page 129). 6 Review the hosting plan parameters and finish its creation.
- 154. 154 Managing Hosting Plans Creating Virtuozzo Dedicated Node Hosting Plan Note: This type of hosting plan can be sold to resellers only. Please, select the Virtuozzo Dedicated Node hosting type , enter the hosting plan title and other general settings as this described earlier in this guide (on page 129), then follow the wizard: 1 Enter the billing rates: Specify the setup fees for all subscription periods in the Setup fee fields. The setup fee is to be once paid by a customer for subscription creation. Type the subscription fees for all subscription periods in the Recurring fee fields. The recurring fee is to be paid by a customer for a subscription period. Check the relevant box(es) to set subscription periods to be offered at your online store. 2 Specify a server architecture. 3 Specify prices for resources allocation: a Type the number of static IPs included in the hosting plan price into the Included value field. Enter the maximal number of static IPs allowed for the hosting plan into the Maximum consumable value field. Enter the price for each additional static IP into the Cost for additional resource allocation field. b In the same way, specify prices for DNS hosting, i.e., how many domains with DNS zone file in your DNS and at what price are allowed. 4 Specify DNS settings: a Select the domain registration hosting plan that will define the terms of domain registration for the hosting plan from the Domain Registration Hosting Plan drop- down menu. b And from the DNS Template drop-down menu, please select the DNS template (on page 74) that will define the standard set of resource records to be placed into the zone file for all domains registered in the frame of the Hosting Plan you are creating. c Select name servers set to be used for domains registration within this hosting plan from the Name servers set drop-down menu. 5 Adjust the traffic accounting settings: To enable traffic accounting by classes (on page 66) for this hosting plan, check the Enable this traffic class for this hosting plan box on a traffic class form. The Create an overusage invoice at the end of every billing month instead of generating an overusage event only checkbox serves for switching the traffic accounting from the metered mode (the box checked) to the non-metered mode (the box cleared). The metered traffic accounting mode allows using traffic over the Included amount but up to the Maximum amount and paying for the traffic used over the Included amount at the end of month. The non-metered traffic accounting mode allows using traffic only up to the Included amount and in case a customer needs more traffic, he/she must order more at an additional fee, but no greater than the Maximum amount; after an order is paid, traffic will be provided.
- 155. Managing Hosting Plans 155 By default, each traffic class is set to the combined traffic accounting. If you want to account the incoming and outgoing traffic separately, clear the Combine incoming and outgoing traffic box. As a result the Combined Traffic fields on a traffic class become disabled and at the same time both the Incoming traffic and Outgoing traffic fields become enabled, so you can enter a special traffic limits and prices for incoming and outgoing traffic. To set the traffic limits and prices, specify the values in the fields next to a traffic type name: Select the units to measure traffic from the Units drop-down menu. If you do not want to limit traffic for the hosting plan subscribers, check the Unlim box next to the corresponding traffic type. If you want to set limits and prices, clear the Unlim box and enter limits and rates. Enter the monthly traffic amount included in the hosting plan price into the Included amount field. Enter the monthly traffic limit into the Maximum amount field. This will be the maximal traffic value allowed for customers subscribed for this hosting plan. Enter the price per additional traffic unit (selected from the Units drop-down menu) into the Overuse rate/Cost for additional field. 6 You can optionally attach additional services (custom attributes) to a hosting plan as this described earlier in this guide (on page 129). 7 Add custom questions to be asked at the HSPstore when a customer subscribes for a hosting plan as this described earlier in this guide (on page 129). 8 Review the hosting plan parameters and finish its creation. Note: The maximum number of Containers you can create on your dedicated Virtuozzo Node is set forth in the Virtuozzo license shipped with the product. On management of the Containers see the Managing Containers chapter (on page 230). Creating Plesk Dedicated Node Hosting Plan Note: This type of hosting plan can be sold to resellers only. Please, select the Plesk Dedicated Node hosting type, enter the hosting plan title and other general settings as this described earlier in this guide (on page 129), then follow the wizard: 1 Enter the billing rates: Specify the setup fees for all subscription periods in the Setup fee fields. The setup fee is to be once paid by a customer for subscription creation. Type the subscription fees for all subscription periods in the Recurring fee fields. The recurring fee is to be paid by a customer for a subscription period. Check the relevant box(es) to set subscription periods to be offered at your online store. 2 Specify a server architecture. 3 Set the resources usage rates:
- 156. 156 Managing Hosting Plans Type the number of static IPs included in the hosting plan price into the Included value field. Enter the maximal number of static IPs allowed for the hosting plan into the Maximum consumable value field. Enter the price for each additional static IP into the Cost for additional resource allocation field. Number of domains with DNS hosting provided. Specify the number of domains that can have zones in HSP DNS. 4 Adjust DNS settings: a Select the domain registration hosting plan that will define the terms of domain registration for the hosting plan from the Domain Registration Hosting Plan drop- down menu. b And from the DNS Template drop-down menu, please select the DNS template (on page 74) that will define the standard set of resource records to be placed into the zone file for all domains registered in the frame of the Hosting Plan you are creating. c Select name servers set to be used for domains registration within this hosting plan from the Name servers set drop-down menu. 5 Licenses Selection: If you sell licenses and have configured a Key Administrator plug-in (on page 55) with one or more license classes available for sale, you are offered to select the license classes and configure license properties of these classes. In this case, to select a license class for sale, check the box next to a License Class name and click the Next button. On the next step, you can see the licenses of the selected classes, each license properties in a separate form, if several licenses are selected, then forms for each of the licenses are shown one-by-one, fill the forms and scroll the screen to configure all licenses. The name of a license class is at the form heading. To activate a license in general, check the Active box. To offer a license for sale in the frame of the hosting plan, check the Sell this license in my HSPstore box. To include a license in the hosting package without the ability for a customer to un- select a license and do not buy it, check the Included box, otherwise, leave this box clear and specify the price for a license. If a license properties allow including additional services and/or additional license keys, then to sell them in a license package, check the box(es) next to a service or an additional key name, if it is possible to specify an additional key capacity, then select the capacity and specify the price. 6 You can optionally attach additional services (custom attributes) to a hosting plan as this described earlier in this guide (on page 129). 7 Adjust the traffic accounting settings: To enable traffic accounting by classes (on page 66) for this hosting plan, check the Enable this traffic class for this hosting plan box on a traffic class form.
- 157. Managing Hosting Plans 157 The Create an overusage invoice at the end of every billing month instead of generating an overusage event only checkbox serves for switching the traffic accounting from the metered mode (the box checked) to the non-metered mode (the box cleared). The metered traffic accounting mode allows using traffic over the Included amount but up to the Maximum amount and paying for the traffic used over the Included amount at the end of month. The non-metered traffic accounting mode allows using traffic only up to the Included amount and in case a customer needs more traffic, he/she must order more at an additional fee, but no greater than the Maximum amount; after an order is paid, traffic will be provided. By default, each traffic class is set to the combined traffic accounting. If you want to account the incoming and outgoing traffic separately, clear the Combine incoming and outgoing traffic box. As a result the Combined Traffic fields on a traffic class become disabled and at the same time both the Incoming traffic and Outgoing traffic fields become enabled, so you can enter a special traffic limits and prices for incoming and outgoing traffic. To set the traffic limits and prices, specify the values in the fields next to a traffic type name: Select the units to measure traffic from the Units drop-down menu. If you do not want to limit traffic for the hosting plan subscribers, check the Unlim box next to the corresponding traffic type. If you want to set limits and prices, clear the Unlim box and enter limits and rates. Enter the monthly traffic amount included in the hosting plan price into the Included amount field. Enter the monthly traffic limit into the Maximum amount field. This will be the maximal traffic value allowed for customers subscribed for this hosting plan. Enter the price per additional traffic unit (selected from the Units drop-down menu) into the Overuse rate/Cost for additional field. 8 Add custom questions to be asked at the HSPstore when a customer subscribes for a hosting plan as this described earlier in this guide (on page 129). 9 Review the hosting plan parameters and finish its creation.
- 158. 158 Managing Hosting Plans Creating Miscellaneous Hosting Plan Miscellaneous is a special type of Hosting Plans that allow you to sell specific or supplementary services. Current implementation of Parallels Business Automation - Standard allows you to set such services via Hosting Plan custom attributes (on page 86). Select the Miscellaneous hosting type. Enter the hosting plan title and other general settings as this described earlier in this guide (on page 129), then follow the wizard: 1 Enter the billing rates: Specify the setup fees for all subscription periods in the Setup fee fields. The setup fee is to be once paid by a customer for subscription creation. Type the subscription fees for all subscription periods in the Recurring fee fields. The recurring fee is to be paid by a customer for a subscription period. In respect to subscription periods for provider and reseller(s), the appropriate checkboxes become enabled in accordance with availability settings made in hosting plan General Settings. Check the relevant checkbox(es) to set subscription periods to be offered at your online store and/or available for resellers. Please note that dedicated hosting plans cannot be resold, so there is no options for resellers in such hosting plans. Select the upgrade calculation fees. Note: When Reseller copies one of hosting plans owned by provider, they can sell this plan only in the frame of subscription periods a provider have defined for resellers. Hosting plan general availability for resellers can be set in a plan General Settings, and subscription periods available for resellers are to be set in a plan Billing Rates. 2 Specify the DNS hosing settings. DNS hosting is creation a zone file for a domain in Parallels Business Automation - Standard DNS and you can specify how many domains can be provided with DNS hosting: Specify how many domains with DNS hosting are included in hosting plan price, in the Included value field. The included value defines the limit of resource usage included in a Hosting Plan price. Specify the limit of domains with DNS hosting for this hosting plan in the Maximum consumable limit field. In the Cost for additional resource allocation field set the price per one domain with DNS hosting over the included value. When the included value is used up, a customer can buy DNS hosting up to the maximum consumable value. You can also use the upgrade by blocks option which allows you to limit the resources upgrade options in CP to certain values calculated on the basis of the upgrade block amount. Thus, once the option is set, the upgrade in CP will be effected by blocks and new resource value available in CP will equal current resource value plus N times upgrade block units. The number of upgrade block units can be set in the Upgrade block field. 3 Specify DNS settings:
- 159. Managing Hosting Plans 159 a Select the domain registration hosting plan that will define the terms of domain registration for the hosting plan from the Domain Registration Hosting Plan drop- down menu. b And from the DNS Template drop-down menu, please select the DNS template (on page 74) that will define the standard set of resource records to be placed into the zone file for all domains registered in the frame of the Hosting Plan you are creating. c Select name servers set to be used for domains registration within this hosting plan from the Name servers set drop-down menu. 4 Select licences ot sell within the hosting plan: If you sell licenses and have configured a Key Administrator plug-in (on page 55) with one or more license classes available for sale, you are offered to select the license classes and configure license properties of these classes. In this case, to select a license class for sale, check the box next to a License Class name and click the Next button. On the next step, you can see the licenses of the selected classes, each license properties in a separate form, if several licenses are selected, then forms for each of the licenses are shown one-by-one, fill the forms and scroll the screen to configure all licenses. The name of a license class is at the form heading. To activate a license in general, check the Active box. To offer a license for sale in the frame of the hosting plan, check the Sell this license in my HSPstore box. To include a license in the hosting package without the ability for a customer to un- select a license and do not buy it, check the Included box, otherwise, leave this box clear and specify the price for a license. If a license properties allow including additional services and/or additional license keys, then to sell them in a license package, check the box(es) next to a service or an additional key name, if it is possible to specify an additional key capacity, then select the capacity and specify the price. 5 Attach custom attributes that will be sold in the frame of the hosting plan as this described earlier in this guide (on page 129). 6 Add custom questions to be asked at the HSPstore when a customer subscribes for a hosting plan as this described earlier in this guide (on page 129). 7 Review the hosting plan parameters and finish its creation.
- 160. 160 Managing Hosting Plans Creating and Selling the Trial-Only Hosting Plans It is possible to publish in the store the trial-only Hosting Plans, without subscription periods and with trial-only subscription periods. Note: The trial-only subscription is available only for Virtuozzo Container and Plesk client/domain types of Hosting Plans. To create the trial-only Hosting Plan: 1 Go to the Billing Director - Product Manager - Hosting Plans and click the New Hosting Plan button. 2 Select the Virtuozzo Container, Plesk Client, or Plesk Domain type of hosting. Enter the hosting plan title and other general settings as this described earlier in this guide (on page 129). Note: Do not forget to set the trial period for the Hosting Plan. If the trial period is allowed for Resellers, and Resellers are allowed to create a copy of the Hosting Plan, then Resellers can offer the trial period no greater than allowed by a Hosting Plan owner (Provider). 3 Click the Next button. 4 Enter the billing rates: a Specify the setup fees for all subscription periods in the Setup fee fields. The setup fee is to be once paid by a customer for subscription creation. b Type the subscription fees for all subscription periods in the Recurring fee fields. The recurring fee is to be paid by a customer for a subscription period. c Leave clear the boxes designated for subscription periods selection. This allows publishing the Hosting Plan with trial option only. Note: The Hosting Plan owner (Provider) can later add commercial subscription periods for the Hosting Plans in the Hosting Plan properties - Billing Rates tab. A Reseller, who had copied the Hosting Plan cannot add commercial subscription periods to such a plan 5 Click the Next button and follow the wizard to finalize the Hosting Plan creation: For Virtuozzo Container Hosting Plan (on page 133) For Plesk Client Hosting Plan (on page 143) For Plesk Domain Hosting Plan (on page 138)
- 161. Managing Hosting Plans 161 Upgrading Hosting Plans To change a Hosting Plan properties: 1 Open the Billing Director submenu on the Navigation tree and select the Product Manager. 2 Click Hosting Plans on the Product Manager dashboard. The list of all Hosting Plans appears on the screen. 3 Click on the Hosting Plan title. The selected Hosting Plan properties appear on the screen. The Hosting Plan properties (i.e., the set of tabs) differ depending on the Hosing Plan type. 4 Click on the different tabs to select the Hosting Plan properties you want to change and then click the Edit button. You can easily include or delete applications for Virtuozzo Container or Plesk Domain Hosting Plan types and change Plesk domain administrator permissions for the Plesk Domain Hosting Plans. The full set of applications (all installed on the Management Node or included in the Plesk server Applications Vault) is available. Note: When you change a Hosting Plan properties, a new version of this Hosting Plan is created. Subscriptions based on the old version of a Hosting Plan can be upgraded to a new version. To add or remove applications for the Virtuozzo Container or Plesk Domain Hosting Plans: 1 Select a Hosting Plan as this described above. 2 Select the Applications tab and click the Edit button. 3 Select applications to be available within a Hosting Plan: Make an Application available within a Hosting Plan by checking the box next to an Application name (in the Enabled column). In this case, an Application will be offered in the store within the separate Price List, at a special fee, and a customer can buy it or not. In this case, the price for Application(s) selected will be added to Hosting Plan price (fees) in the Order total. And the applications that were not selected by a subscriber will remain available and can be installed by a customer from the Control Panel (after the corresponding invoice is paid). Include an Application in a Hosting Plan price by checking both the boxes next to an Application name in the Enabled column and in the Included column. In this case, an Application is included in Hosting Plan and a subscriber cannot unselect such an Application when buying a Hosting Plan. However, a customer can uninstall such an application from the Control Panel. In this case, the application remains available and can be re-installed by a customer from the Control Panel at any moment without any additional charges. Note: Enabled - is the determining setting. If this box is not checked, the relevant box in the Included column is disabled.
- 162. 162 Managing Hosting Plans 4 Click the Save button. To change the Plesk domain administrator permissions: 1 Select a Hosting Plan as this described above. 2 Select the Permissions and Settings tab and click the Edit button. 3 Check or clear the boxed next to the action name to allow or disallow an action respectively. 4 Click the Save button. In this section: Changing Hosting Plan Billable Resources Configuration ................................. 162 Changing Hosting Plan Billable Resources Configuration The Billable Resources tab within a hosting plan properties allows viewing and editing resources usage quotas and pricing. The set of resources differs depending on a hosting plan type. Please, click on the hosting plan type to view the needed help topic: Virtuozzo Container (on page 163) Plesk Client (on page 163) Plesk Domain (on page 163) Plesk Virtual Node (on page 165) Dedicated Server (on page 166) In this section: Virtuozzo Container Hosting Plan Billable Resources ....................................... 163 Plesk Client Hosting Plan Billable Resources.................................................... 163 Plesk Domain Hosting Plan Billable Resources ................................................ 163 Plesk Virtual Node Hosting Plan Billable Resources ......................................... 165 Dedicated Server Hosting Plan Billable Resources ........................................... 166
- 163. Managing Hosting Plans 163 Virtuozzo Container Hosting Plan Billable Resources You can set values for each parameter within the allowable range in the Included value fields. The included value defines the limit of resource usage included in a Hosting Plan price. You can also use the upgrade by blocks option which allows you to limit the resources upgrade options in CP to certain values calculated on the basis of the upgrade block amount. Thus, once the option is set, the upgrade in CP will be effected by blocks and new resource value available in CP will equal current resource value plus N times upgrade block units. The number of upgrade block units can be set in the Upgrade block field. The prices for resource overusage or resources upgrade are set in the Cost for additional resource allocation field: Top of page (on page 162) Plesk Client Hosting Plan Billable Resources You can set values for each parameter within the allowable range in the Included value fields. The included value defines the limit of resource usage included in a Hosting Plan price. You can also use the upgrade by blocks option which allows you to limit the resources upgrade options in CP to certain values calculated on the basis of the upgrade block amount. Thus, once the option is set, the upgrade in CP will be effected by blocks and new resource value available in CP will equal current resource value plus N times upgrade block units. The number of upgrade block units can be set in the Upgrade block field. The price for resource overusage or resources upgrade is set in the Cost for additional resource allocation field. To set the resource value to unlimited, check the Do not limit this resource box on the corresponding resource form. Top of page (on page 162) Plesk Domain Hosting Plan Billable Resources You can set values for each parameter within the allowable range in the Included value fields. The included value defines the limit of resource usage included in a Hosting Plan price. You can also use the upgrade by blocks option which allows you to limit the resources upgrade options in CP to certain values calculated on the basis of the upgrade block amount. Thus, once the option is set, the upgrade in CP will be effected by blocks and new resource value available in CP will equal current resource value plus N times upgrade block units. The number of upgrade block units can be set in the Upgrade block field. The price for resource overusage or resources upgrade is set in the Cost for additional field. To set the resource value to unlimited, check the Do not limit this resource box on the corresponding resource form.
- 164. 164 Managing Hosting Plans Disk space quota. The total amount of disk space that can be occupied by a domain. It includes disk space occupied by all files related to website contents, databases, applications, mailboxes, log files and backup files. This is the so-called soft quota: when it is exceeded, domain names and web sites are not suspended automatically, only the appropriate notices are sent to a corresponding Plesk client administrator and the resource overage is indicated by a special icon. Number of web users. A web user is a user account within web server. It is used to define locations for personalized web pages with individual FTP access. The result of web user creation is a subdirectory within a Plesk domain (e.g., domain.com/~webuser). For Plesk Unix Platform only: Number of databases. The number of databases a customer is allowed to create or manage on a Plesk domain using the Plesk Control Panel tools. Number of mailboxes. The number of mailboxes allowed for creation on a domain. Mailbox quota. The maximal size for any mailbox created on a domain. Number of mail redirects. The number of mail forwarding settings allowed for a domain. Number of mail groups. The number of e-mail addresses groups under a single e-mail address. Mail sent to this single e-mail address is sent to all addresses in a group as well. Number of mail autoresponders. The number of autoresponders that allow you to instantly respond to any message with a stock reply. Number of mailing lists. A mailing list is a list of e-mail addresses identified by a single name. Mail list provides more options than a mail group. Number of Java applications. Number of Java applications allowed for installation inside a Plesk domain. Number of subdomains. The number of subdomains (not a domain registration, but a web pages) allowed for creation inside a Plesk domain. Dedicated IPs. The number of dedicated IP addresses available for a Plesk domain. Please note that this setting does not provide the dedicated IP assignment right after a Plesk domain creation. This setting just provides the possibility for a Plesk domain user to switch a Plesk domain from shared IP address to dedicated one. Hard disk space quota. A strict disk space quota set on an operating system level. The quota limits the disk space occupied by files owned by a user, for example the files uploaded via ftp. A domain user is not allowed to exceed this quota at all.This is the so-called hard quota that will not allow writing more files to the web space when the limit is reached. At attempt to write files, users will get the „Out of disk space‟ error. Hard quotas should be enabled in the Plesk server‟s operating system. Maximum Number of Domain Aliases. The maximal number of domain aliases on a domain. This resource is billed because zone files are created for Plesk domain aliases in Parallels Business Automation - Standard DNS. Number of domains with DNS hosting provided. The number of domains that can have zones in HSP DNS. For Plesk Windows Platform Only: MySQL disk space quota. Total disk size allocated for all MySQL database on a domain.
- 165. Managing Hosting Plans 165 MSSQL disk space quota. Total disk size allocated for all Microsoft SQL databases on a domain. Maximum number of MSSQL databases. Maximal number of Microsoft SQL databases on a domain. Maximum number of shared SSL links. Shared SSL is a means of secure Web server access without requiring users to purchase a digital key. In this case, only one domain should have a real SSL certificate. In Plesk, such domain is called Master SSL Domain. Other domains, which are set up to use Shared SSL will use its resources. After Plesk Administrator has defined the Master SSL Domain, the ability to set shared SSL links can be given Plesk clients and then a Plesk client administrator will be able to enable the Shared SSL support on per-domain basis. Please enter the maximum allowed number of shared SSL links on a domain. Number of MySQL databases. Maximal number of MySQL databases on a domain. Total mailboxes quota. The total disk space allocated for all mailboxes created on a domain. Maximum number of additional FTP accounts. Displays the maximum number of additional FTP accounts allowed for Plesk domain. Maximum number of Microsoft FrontPage subaccounts. The maximum number of additional Microsoft FrontPage accounts. Maximum number of ODBC connections. The maximum number of ODBC connections that can be used on Plesk domain. Top of page (on page 162) Plesk Virtual Node Hosting Plan Billable Resources You can set values for each parameter within the allowable range in the Included value fields. The included value defines the limit of resource usage included in a Hosting Plan price. You can also use the upgrade by blocks option which allows you to limit the resources upgrade options in CP to certain values calculated on the basis of the upgrade block amount. Thus, once the option is set, the upgrade in CP will be effected by blocks and new resource value available in CP will equal current resource value plus N times upgrade block units. The number of upgrade block units can be set in the Upgrade block field. The price for resource overusage or resources upgrade is set in the Cost for additional field: Number of static IP addresses. You can define only static allocation within each IP pool. Static IP addresses are allocated permanently and can be released only manually. Number of backups. The number of server-side node backups a customer is allowed to create. Total size of all backups. The maximal total size of all server-side backups a customer can have. Number of domains with DNS hosting provided. The number of domains that can have zones in HSP DNS. Disk space quota. Disk size allocated for a Plesk virtual node.
- 166. 166 Managing Hosting Plans CPU usage. This is a positive integer number that determines the minimal guaranteed share of the CPU time the Virtuozzo Container hosting a Plesk node will receive. The CPU usage for VEs is measured in a special units called cpuunits. Please, refer to the Virtuozzo user documentation for more details regarding VEs CPU share and other Virtuozzo Container specific parameters. Top of page (on page 162) Dedicated Server Hosting Plan Billable Resources For dedicated server (Virtuozzo, Plesk, or third-party) you can change the number of static IP addresses available for a dedicated server on purchase and adjust prices for IP addresses allocation: Type the number of static IPs included in the hosting plan price into the Included value field. Enter the maximal number of static IPs allowed for the hosting plan into the Maximum consumable value field. Enter the price for each additional static IP into the Cost for additional resource allocation field. Number of domains with DNS hosting provided. Specify the number of domains that can have zones in HSP DNS. You can also use the upgrade by blocks option which allows you to limit the resources upgrade options in CP to certain values calculated on the basis of the upgrade block amount. Thus, once the option is set, the upgrade in CP will be effected by blocks and new resource value available in CP will equal current resource value plus N times upgrade block units. The number of upgrade block units can be set in the Upgrade block field. Specify how many domains with DNS hosting are included in hosting plan price, in the Included value field. The included value defines the limit of resource usage included in a Hosting Plan price. Specify the limit of domains with DNS hosting for this hosting plan in the Maximum consumable limit field. In the Cost for additional resource allocation field set the price per one domain with DNS hosting over the included value. When the included value is used up, a customer can buy DNS hosting up to the maximum consumable value. Top of page (on page 162) Adding Custom Services to a Hosting Plan Hosting Plans custom attributes in Parallels Business Automation - Standard are additional services that can be provided in the frame of a hosting plan or special attributes used to specify a dedicated server configuration. A custom attribute consists of one option or a group of options that represent services or other parameters offered by a custom attribute.
- 167. Managing Hosting Plans 167 Thus, a custom attribute can include some support services or allow selecting a particular disk size, RAM, or operating system for a dedicated server. In addition, you can create Hosting Plans of a special Miscellaneous type (on page 158) designated for selling custom services (defined by custom attributes) only. You can define one of the two ways a customer selects a custom attribute options: Selectable. When subscribing to a Hosting Plan a customer can select one or more (or all) options available. Exclusive. Useful for dedicated server hosting plans. When subscribing to a Hosting Plan a customer can select only one option from set available for a custom attribute. This selection type is convenient for custom attributes that define a dedicated server configuration. For example, you can create several attributes, each defining a particular property of a dedicated server configuration (hardware or software): Hard Disk, RAM, Processor, Operating System, etc. The order of options as it is shown on the Parallels Business Automation - Standard screen can be used for resources upgrade and downgrade control: Parallels Business Automation - Standard considers an attribute options listing order as resource-demanding sorting. The first option in list - less valuable, the last one - the most valuable. If subscriber changes an option into a less valuable, this will be considered as resource downgrade Order. You can allow or forbid resources downgrade for a subscriber. Custom Attributes grouping: To facilitate custom attributes management, you can group them into categories (for example, such categories as Hardware, Software, Miscellaneous). To create categories for custom attributes, go to the Billing Director - Product Manager - Custom Attributes and select the Custom Attributes Categories tab. How to attach a custom attribute to a hosting plan: 1 Go to the Billing Director - Product Manager - Custom Attributes. Select a custom attribute, click the Edit button on an attribute screen and make the corresponding group available for the type of hosting which the hosting plan you want to attach an attribute belongs to. 2 Configure the hosting plans listing for the corresponding hosting plan type in the Commerce Director - Store Manager - Configure Store - Plan Listing tab. Make sure that the desired custom attribute is selected to be shown within Hosting Plans description. 3 From the set of Hosting Plan properties, select the Custom Attributes tab and attach the desired custom attribute to a Hosting Plan. In this case, you can also set the fee for this particular Hosting Plan. Since the process is quite similar to the last-but-one step of hosting plan creation wizard, please for more details refer to the beginning of this chapter (on page 129).
- 168. 168 Managing Hosting Plans Note: All Hosting Plan custom attributes created by you will be available for all of your Resellers. They can select them and customize. As soon as Reseller had customized an attribute, it becomes an internal attribute used by this Reseller only (as if a Reseller gets the own copy of an attribute), and such customization does not affect configuration of your list of attributes. Summarizing, Resellers can use your custom attributes as a kind of templates, but this does not restrict the ability for a Reseller to create new custom attributes, which initially are at their disposal. Managing Hosting Plans by Versions The hosting plans versioning system implemented in Parallels Business Automation - Standard allows changing Container or Plesk hosting plans parameters without any corruption to any of subscriptions based on a hosting plan being changed. In case you change a hosting plan parameters, a new version of this hosting plan is created automatically. Later you can upgrade one or several or all subscriptions based on an the previous versions of a hosting plan to the latest version of this hosting plan. To view subscriptions based on all versions of a hosting plan (and if needed, upgrade subscriptions to the latest plan version) go to the Billing Director - Product Manager - Hosting Plans, select a hosting plan and then click the Subscriptions tab. When you open the list of hosting plans in the Billing Director - Product Manager - Hosting Plans, you can see only the latest versions of hosting plans. In other words, if you click on a hosting plan ID and drill to a plan details, you will view all the latest parameters. Previous versions of a hosting plan are not shown, but they are near and figuratively speaking, the previous versions are “piled” under the latest ones and if needed, you can get to the previous plan versions via the corresponding subscription. How you can see the previous versions of a hosting plan? Open the list of hosting plans, select one (of Container or Plesk type). Then select the Old Versions tab from the set of plan properties. You can see the list of all the previous versions of the hosting plan selected. In addition, in the Usage column you can see if there are any active subscriptions based on each version. You can delete the unused old versions of the hosting plan by one click. How hosting plan versions are numbered? Each version of hosting plan is identified by a unique numerical identifier - ID. However, to facilitate recognizing of the original hosting plan, an additional identifier was introduced - a series key. A series key equals to the ID of an original hosting plan. When a new version of a hosting plan is created, it gets a new ID. And the series key stays the same for all versions of the same hosting plan. Thus, the series key is kind of a common attribute that characterizes a family of hosting plans of the same origin. The billing component of the upgrade operation is the following. The order for the latest hosting plan version is generated. In this case, it is possible to generate the zero order so that services provisioning starts automatically and immediately. In case a customer owes provider or conversely as a result of upgrade, the relevant order balance correction is appended, to get the zero order balance. In case of the usual order generation, the existing subscription fee is refunded and the new fee is charged.
- 169. Managing Hosting Plans 169 The technical component of the upgrade consists in compatibility checks. Parallels Business Automation - Standard checks the resource parameters and applications compatibility in the old and new hosting plan version. If some applications exist in the old version of the hosting plan bur absent in the latest version, then the upgrade procedure will be cancelled with corresponding error message. Note: If a Reseller upgrades subscriptions of their customers to the latest version of a given hosting plan, the corresponding Provider invoices are generated as if a Reseller sells a hosting plan. Creating a Hosting Plan on the Basis of an Existing One If you want to add a new hosting plan that mostly alike an existing one but differs in some parameters, or you need a basis for a new hosting plan, you can create a copy of any of existing hosting plans, give this copy a new name and shape the set of services in a way you need. To this effect, go to the Billing Director - Product Manager - Hosting Plans, select a hosting plan you want to copy and make a hosting plan clone. Promoting Hosting Plans Promotions are discount periods for sale of one or a several Hosting Plans which are periodically announced by Hosting Service Provider or Reseller. Each Promotion has a sales period (between Start date and End date) during which a Hosting Plan being promoted will include a certain discount valid during a certain Discount Period. You can create promotions that include: Just a discount. Both a discount and waiving domain registration fee. It is possible to create both the public promotions and promotions activated by a coupon code. Coupon codes allow your customers to gain additional discount at your HSPstore. A customer will be asked for a coupon code on the order review page at your HSPstore. You can create a coded promotion or add a code to an existing public promotion. Similarly, you can remove a code from the coded promotion to make it public. In Parallels Business Automation - Standard promotions are being applied not per hosting plan, but from a promotion side, i.e., the list of hosting plans a promotion is applied to is the part of promotion properties. To apply a promotion to a Hosting Plan, go to the Billing Director - Discount Manager - Promotions. Create a promotion or select the existing one. Add hosting plans to the list of promoted plans.
- 170. 170 Managing Hosting Plans Any hosting plan can have one public promotion and unlimited number of coupon-code promotions applied at the same time. Calculations for the Hosting Plan Change If your customer upgrades his (or her) Hosting Plan to another one (or to the same one, but to the longer subscription period) then the following is taken into account: The period of time a customer have used the old Hosting Plan. For example, if a customer had subscribed for one month and had used a Hosting Plan during 5 days, then the amount for the unused subscription period will be refunded at the pro-rated price. The new Hosting Plan billing rates and whether the setup fee is charged or not. The new Order is being created, and (depending the setup fee settings) this Order includes the subscription fee for the new Hosting Plan and may either include the full setup fee for the new Hosting Plan or (if the new Hosting Plan setup fee is higher) the difference between the new Plan and the old Plan setup fees, or may not include the setup fee at all. Summarizing, if a customer upgrades his (or her) Hosting Plan: A customer is refunded (the credit adjustment for unused subscription period is issued). The Order for the new Hosting Plan is created. After the Order is paid, the customer‟s subscription is changed: now it includes the new services and starts from the date of upgrade.
- 171. CHAPTER 11 Managing Accounts There are three basic types of accounts: Provider account - the only one account of Parallels Business Automation - Standard installation owner - provider. Provider account always has the numerical identifier (ID) of 1. Registered users associated with Provider account are called staff members. If a staff member has a Role (on page 24) assigned in the provider account (which gives a particular access permissions to Provider Control Center tools) this user can log in to the Provider Control Center. Provider account profile can be edited from Provider Control Center > top menu item (account name). Click on the account name and select the Company Profile tab or Contacts tab. Reseller accounts - an accounts for provider clients that re-sell provider services. Registered users that are associated with reseller account and have a Role assigned in a reseller account are called reseller staff members and can log in to the Reseller Control Center with access permissions defined by a Role assigned. Reseller Accounts are managed under Account Director > Reseller Manager > Resellers. Customer Accounts - an accounts for provider or Reseller customers. Registered users that are associated with customer accounts and have Role assigned in a customer account can log in to the Control Panel. Customer accounts are managed using Account Director > Customer Manager > Customers. Customer accounts can be of the two types: Personal Accounts are created for personal customers. Such Accounts hold customer personal info, billing settings, and contacts. Business Accounts are created for companies. Such Accounts hold special contact information (special Administrative, Billing, and Technical contacts) in addition to all data included in personal Accounts. Users are registered using the Configuration Director > Security Manager. Roles for account users can be assigned in the Configuration Director - Security Manager - Setup. Under the Account Director you can also manage customers‟ subscriptions (on page 216) and configure the built-in trouble ticket system (on page 256) or switch to one of the external helpdesks integrated with Parallels Business Automation - Standard. Users Users are registered persons. Staff members are users registered within the Provider or Reseller Account. A user can be assigned to only one account.
- 172. 172 Managing Accounts User Roles Roles keep the set of pre-defined access permissions. Roles are assigned to users within Accounts. Permissions Permissions are assigned per Role, not per individual user. In this chapter: Creating Accounts ............................................................................................. 173 Entering User Agreement .................................................................................. 174 Assigning a Tax Zone ........................................................................................ 176 Granting a Discount........................................................................................... 177 Adjusting Account Balance ................................................................................ 177 Viewing the Account Billing History ................................................................... 179 Managing the Set of Events a Customer Receives E-Mail Notifications............. 179 Managing Account Contacts by Versions .......................................................... 179 Changing a Customer Billing Day ...................................................................... 180
- 173. Managing Accounts 173 Creating Accounts Customer accounts can be created both from the Control Center and by customers, from your online store. Reseller accounts can be created only manually, from the Control Center. To create a new Customer Account, go to Account Director - Customer Manager and click the New Account button.Fill the form that appears. The New Account Form includes the following sections: General Info: Account type - select by setting the radio button to personal or business. In the case if you select business Account type, the Company name should be indicated; Status - select from drop-down menu the current status (Active or On Hold) of the Account being created. Active status means that full range of operations may be performed within Parallels Business Automation - Standard on behalf of this Account. On Hold status means that an Account is out of service. Active status is offered by default. Customer Administrator: Account cannot be created without registration at least one User associated with this Account. Since Customer Accounts provide only one Role, Customer Administrator name, e-mail address, and password should be entered. This e-mail and password should be used to log in Parallels Business Automation - Standard Control Panels on behalf of this Account. Please, pay attention on the Time Zone menu. Since the Parallels Business Automation - Standard database is bound to GMT, Parallels Business Automation - Standard logs may occur to be hardly-understandable for persons those reside in the other time zone. Thus, you can select the needed time zone, so that the User being registered (in this case, Customer Administrator) may understand logs (and other system messages) without the need to recalculate time. Billing Information: Discount category - a discount to be applied to Invoices generated for this Account. Credit Terms - settlement order for this Account: due period, credit limit, subscription expiration terms, etc. Credit terms are created under Account Director - Subscription Manager. Credit Limit - maximal debt allowed for this Account. Credit Limit is normally defined in the frame of Credit Terms. However, if needed you can define a special credit limit for this particular account. To this effect, clear the Use value of Credit Limit defined in Credit Terms box and enter the special credit limit value into the Credit Limit field. Billing Day - the day of month when a customer is charged. Tax exemption
- 174. 174 Managing Accounts To get tax exemption, your customers can enter their own VAT Number either from the Control Panel or during account creation in your HSPstore. In addition, later you can manually enter the VAT Number for your customers (Account profile -> Financial Info tab). To make accounting more secure you can set the manual approval mode for VAT Number and address (on page 123). Three statuses can be assigned to a customer address or VAT Number: ‘Not Checked’ status is assigned by default to customer‟s address and VAT Number. In this case, if you have set taxation to secure mode, transaction is not allowed. ‘Approved’ status allows transaction and further processing of customer‟s order. ‘Rejected’ status forbids order processing. Address and Phone: Customer contacts to send Invoices and solve other problems connected with services provided. Click the Next button to proceed. For business Customer Accounts, it will be offered to indicate special contacts for administrative, billing, and technical issues. By default the Customer Administrator named on previous step is responsible for administrative issues. You can assign separate persons responsible for billing and technical issues. However, if you consider it reasonable to set one contact for all, check Same as administrative contact checkbox(es). Click the Save button to create new Account. The list of all Customer Accounts will be displayed. Entering User Agreement The User agreement is a legal contract between a vendor and a customer. Customers are offered to accept a User Agreement in your store. If a customer does not accept a User Agreement, he/she is not allowed to proceed with purchase. In Parallels Business Automation - Standard there are two entries where it‟s required to accept a User Agreement: Store: New account registration page. Store: Order placement page. Accordingly, there are two User Agreement forms in Provider and Reseller Control Center: Account Director > Customer Manager > Terms and Conditions: User agreement (for registering new subscriber). This agreement is offered when a new customer registers an account in store, „Sign in/Register‟ page. User agreement (for placing order). This agreement is offered when a customer places an order in store, „Checkout‟ page. The link to a User Agreement is shown at the bottom of a store page:
- 175. Managing Accounts 175 Customers can accept a User Agreement by checking the box next to the I accept the terms of this User Agreement link or click on this link and view an Agreement text before accepting it. A user Agreement text opens in a popup window. To enter a User Agreement text: 1 Select Account Director > Customer Manager > Terms and Conditions and then click on one of the tabs to select the type of agreement you want to enter. 2 Click Edit. Fill the form: a Enter the text that will be shown as an agreement text title into the Title field. b Enter or paste the text of the User Agreement into the Body field. Please note that: Parallels Business Automation - Standard supports multi-lingual customization for a wide range of fields (website texts, hosting plan names and description, notification templates). You can enter and save texts in any of the languages available for the current Parallels Business Automation - Standard implementation (Bulgarian, Chinese Simplified, Chinese Traditional, Dutch, English, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Polish, Russian, Spanish). To select the language, click one of the buttons with language names tiled below the field you want to enter the text and enter the text in the language selected. For example, click English - and edit the English text, then click German (the English content will be saved and replaced with the German content in the same field) and edit the German text, and so on, for all languages you want to use in your store. 3 To save the agreement text, click the Update button.
- 176. 176 Managing Accounts Assigning a Tax Zone You can set different tax rates (on page 89) that can be applied automatically to orders total depending on the customers‟ country of origin (buyer‟s tax zone) indicated in his (or her) Account profile. In general, taxation in Parallels Business Automation - Standard is a system-wide setting that affects Provider (or Reseller) accounting in general. You can create several tax rates, then add several tax zones (each including the specific combination of tax rates). After this, taxes will be calculated in accordance with the buyer‟s country indicated in his (or her) account profile. However, if needed, you can assign the individual tax zone to accounts. To this effect, open the account details and edit its General Settings. Note: You can create the default Tax Zone to define the tax rate for any of the countries you did not created the special Tax Zone. You can enter your own VAT Number (if you have such) and enable (or disable) the tax exemption depending on your needs. Your customers can enter their own VAT Number either from the Control Panel or during account creation in your HSPstore. In addition, you can enter the VAT Number for your customers (Account profile -> Financial Info tab). To make accounting more secure you can set the manual approval mode for VAT Number and address (on page 123). Three statuses can be assigned to a customer address or VAT Number: “Not Checked” status is assigned by default to customer‟s address and VAT Number. In this case, if you have set taxation to secure mode, transaction is not allowed. “Approved” status allows transaction and further processing of customer‟s order. “Rejected” status forbids order processing.
- 177. Managing Accounts 177 Granting a Discount Discounts in HSPcomplete are separate objects included in the Billing Director settings. A discount includes the percentage of discount given and the scope of fees this discount is applied to: Setup fees. This is the minimal sum to be paid when a customer subscribes for services, without respect to a subscription period selected. Subscription fees. This is the sum being paid for services provided during a subscription period. Application fees. This is the price for optional or additional Applications being installed in customer‟s Container. Resource overusage. In the case if a customer exceeds the resource-usage limits allowable for Container purchased (for example, disk space or traffic), the resource- overusage Invoice is being issued at the end of subscription period. Domain Registration. The price for a new domain registration. Thus, at first you should create one or more discounts in the Billing Director > Discount Manager > Discount Categories and then you can go to an account profile (Financial Info tab) and assign a discount. The discounts that can be assigned to customer accounts are called Discount Categories. Discount categories assigned to reseller accounts as a „partner discount‟ are applied to amounts a reseller pays provider for resold services. Adjusting Account Balance To change an account balance, you can enter the credit or debit adjustments. To add an arbitrary payments, your customers and resellers can enter Payment Requests (on page 209). Adjustments are used for Accounts‟ balance adjustment. For example, Credit Adjustment is applied if a customer was overcharged (to increase the Account balance), and Debit Adjustment is applied if a customer ordered additional services (increase the billed sum and decrease Account balance). Automated applying of credit adjustments can be set in the same way as for offline payments: when you add a credit adjustment, you can check the Apply this payment automatically to future orders and invoices box. And when you add a debit adjustment, the list of payments and credit adjustments with unused positive balance is offered (if any), so you can select the document to pay a debit adjustment right away. Note: Credit adjustments are not accounted in the collected cash report. To add an adjustment, do one of the following:
- 178. 178 Managing Accounts Go the the Billing Director - Receivable - Documents - Adjustments tab. Go to the Account Director - Customer Manager - Customers, select an account and then select the Billing History tab.
- 179. Managing Accounts 179 Viewing the Account Billing History All the documents that affect the account balance (invoices, both debit and credit adjustments, payments) can be viewed in the account profile, under the Billing History tab. Managing the Set of Events a Customer Receives E-Mail Notifications For each account (both customer or reseller ones) you can define the set of events for which e-mail notifications are sent to an account owner or unsubscribe it from the event notifications at all. To this effect, go to the Account Director - Customer Manager (for customer accounts) or to the Reseller Manager (for reseller accounts). Select an account and then select the Notifications tab. In addition, you can define the set of events a customer can enable or disable e-mail notifications for using the Control Panel. This can be done per event, in the Configuration Director - Event Manager - Events, select an event, select the General Settings tab within an event settings and check or clear the Customer can control receiving notifications for this event box to allow or disallow customers to disable/enable receiving notifications about an event. Managing Account Contacts by Versions Accounts data (customer name, address, contact phone, fax, etc.) is saved by versions. As soon as an account data is changed, a new version of account data is created. All the previous versions are saved. The previous versions of account contacts can be viewed and managed under the Contacts tab within an account properties. There is a special sub-form entitled as Contact Versions at the Contacts screen. Using the Version drop-down menu, you can select a contact data version to use, view, or edit. To this effect, select the version and click the Display button. How an account contacts versions are used Billing. Select contact version to use in documents. The number of an account data version (existing by the moment a document has been issued) is stored in documents data. Thus, it is possible to select what version of an account contacts to use in billing documents: Contacts stored for an account by the moment a document has been issued or The latest version stored in account.
- 180. 180 Managing Accounts This can be done by means of a new version placeholders. Note: By default, version placeholders are used in billing documents printable forms. This means that by default the contacts stored in account by the moment of a document creation are used. To change placeholders in documents print forms Go to Configuration Director > Miscellaneous settings > Printable Forms. Printable forms are documents templates mostly composed of placeholders. Printable forms define what information is to be included in a billing document listing. To change placeholders, click on the printable form of a document you need to change. As a selected printable form details appear on the screen, click the Edit button. All the version placeholders have the „version‟ word in their names. For example, @@customer_version.address1@, @@customer_version.address2@, @@customer_version.admin_email@. To use the latest contacts, change version placeholders into an ordinary one and save the changes. Fraud screening. Control customers contacts change. Using account contacts versioning, provider can control how many times and in what way customers change their account contacts. Changing a Customer Billing Day You can change the customers billing date on customer‟s request. The customer billing date is being changed on Account basis (i.e., it affects all subscriptions associated with customer Account. Open the Business Director submenu, select Account Manager and click Accounts. The list of customer Accounts appears on the screen. Select the Account you need. As soon as the Account properties appear on the screen, click the Financial Info tab and select Edit. In the Billing day field, type the new billing date (the day of a month ranging from 1 to 31). Click Update to save changes. If the billing day was set to 31st and there are only 30 days in the next billing month - customer will be billed on the last day of the next month - on 30th. If there are 31 days in the month - customer will be billed on 31st day. A renewal Order will be generated in advance - before the Billing day. It is controlled by Notification Period set in the customer‟s Credit Terms. A Subscription end date will be aligned according to the new Billing Day after 1-2 billing cycles (the billing cycle equals to one month, by default).
- 181. Managing Accounts 181 Traffic usage will be prorated. We assume that a customer consumes the monthly traffic evenly. We assume that customer was supposed to use (A/month) x (Monthly Traffic) of the network traffic up to the new billing date. Monthly subscription fee also will be prorated. When customer signs up - he (or she) prepays the period B. After changing the billing day - on New Billing Day 1 - a customer will be charged the prorated fee (C/B) x (Subscription Fee) for the next period. If C is too short (C/B < ? month), then we immediately charge a customer for the next month. On the New Billing Day 1 Parallels Business Automation - Standard will generate the Invoice for the traffic over-usage occurred between Original Billing Date 0 and New Billing Day 1. We assume that customer was supposed to consume (A/month) x (Monthly Traffic). Then on New Billing Day 2 a customer will be charged the full subscription fee for the period the t corresponds to the New Billing day 2 and traffic over-usage occurred between New Billing Day 1 and New Billing day 2. Application charges will be calculated in the same way as subscription fee.
- 182. 182 Managing Accounts On the Original Billing Day 1 Parallels Business Automation - Standard will generate the invoice for the traffic over-usage occurred between Original Billing Day 0 and Original Billing Day 1. Also it will charge the customer‟s card prorated subscription fee: (F/D) x SubscriptionFee On the New Billing Day 2 Parallels Business Automation - Standard will generate the invoice for the traffic over-usage occurred between New Billing Date 2 and Original Billing Date 1. We assume that customer was supposed to consume (E/month) x MonthlyTraffic. On the New Billing Day 3 Parallels Business Automation - Standard will perform usual charges. Application charges will be calculated in the same way as subscription fee.
- 183. CHAPTER 12 Managing Resellers Resellers are companies that resell HSP services and in general, act as HSP Companies themselves. However, a Reseller does not have nodes run Parallels Business Automation - Standard. Resellers get access to the special set of Parallels Business Automation - Standard tools (Reseller Control Center) and provide services using Internet connection with HSP Management Node. Provider can create reseller accounts manually or accept online reseller applications. In addition, provider can create a pre-defined configurations of reseller accounts. Such configurations define the number of customers a reseller can have and some DNS settings including domain registration plug-ins availability. In this chapter: Entering Reseller Agreement............................................................................. 184 Assigning Partner Discount to Reseller Account ................................................ 184 Assigning Discount to Reseller Account ............................................................ 184 Hiding Reseller‟s URL ....................................................................................... 185 Managing Reseller Account Profile .................................................................... 187 Creating Hosting Plan for Reseller .................................................................... 204
- 184. 184 Managing Resellers Entering Reseller Agreement To enter the Reseller Agreement, to be read by all Resellers before submitting Partner Application, go to the Account Director - Reseller Manager - Terms and Conditions. The resellers signup page called Partners can be enabled or disabled by editing the store configuration file /var/opt/hspc-frontend/templates/header.inc file. The Partners page template is in the /var/opt/hspc-frontend/partners.php file. Assigning Partner Discount to Reseller Account The partner discount allows a reseller to re-sell services at the same price as provider, but pay provider for a sold services at a discounted price in accordance with the partner discount assigned. A partner discount is applied to: Setup fees. This is the minimal sum to be paid when a customer subscribes for services, without respect to a subscription period selected. Subscription fees. This is the sum being paid for services provided during a subscription period. Application fees. This is the price for optional or additional Applications being installed in customer‟s Container. Resource overusage. In the case if a customer exceeds the resource-usage limits allowable for Container purchased (for example, disk space or traffic), the resource- overusage Invoice is being issued at the end of subscription period. Domain Registration. The price for a new domain registration. Partner discounts are selected from a pre-set discount categories created using the Billing Director > Discount Manager > Discount Categories. To assign a partner discount to a reseller, go to the Account Director - Reseller Manager - Resellers. Select a reseller account and then click the Financial Info tab. Assigning Discount to Reseller Account Any of discount categories existing in the Control Center can be assigned to any of Reseller accounts. And this discount works similarly as for any customer accounts, i.e., to all purchases made for a reseller account. To assign a discount category to a Reseller account, go to the Account Director - Reseller Manager - Resellers. Select a reseller account and then click the Financial Info tab.
- 185. Managing Resellers 185 If you want to create a special discount category for Resellers, you can do this in the Billing Director - Discount Manager - Discount Categoies. Hiding Reseller‟s URL Parallels Business Automation - Standard allows hiding Reseller‟s URL in such a way that Reseller website seems absolutely independent from HSP server (and other Resellers). Reseller hiding is included into a reseller account creation wizard. A reseller account cannot be saved without hiding configured. If a Reseller does not have a domain, then a temporal domain is created in HSP domain. Important: Resellers hiding is necessary for reseller store to work in case a reseller uses provider store installation. You can assign an IP address from your Management Node IP pool to a domain delegated by a reseller so that your Management Node (i.e., the Reseller Control Center and reseller store) will be accessible by a new reseller‟s URL. To change a reseller‟s URL hiding, go to the Account Director - Reseller Manager - Resellers. Select a reseller account and then click the Hiding tab. To edit a reseller hiding options: 1 Click the Edit button at a Reseller Hiding screen. 2 Adjust the hiding settings: Reseller‟s own domain name Domain. Enter a reseller domain name used for reseller store. If you do not sure about a domain name to enter, use the default one. By default, a reseller hiding URL is formed of a reseller account administrator name written in one string in lowercase and your default domain. Add into DNS. Check this box to create a domain zone file in the Parallels Business Automation - Standard DNS, i.e., provide the DNS hosting for the reseller domain. Name servers Select a name servers set. Please select a name servers set to be used for the domains owned by the reseller. The ability for a reseller to have own name servers set is defined in a Reseller Configuration. Reseller‟s own IP address Set the option button to one of the following: Share provider‟s IP address. Use your IP address for the reseller domain. Add new IP address to Parallels Business Automation - Standard server. Add a new dedicated IP address for a reseller domain. IP address. Enter a reseller IP address.
- 186. 186 Managing Resellers The composition of the rest of the fields depends on the type of Parallels Business Automation - Standard installation: If Parallels Business Automation - Standard is installed inside a Virtuozzo Container: Hardware node root password. Indicate the root password of the server that hosts the Virtuozzo Container with Parallels Business Automation - Standard installed. This is necessary to make your Management Node installed inside one of Container hosted in this Hardware Node accessible over the network. If Parallels Business Automation - Standard is installed on a physical server, you can register a new IP address in the same way as for Linux conventional network interface : Netmask. Enter a network mask. Interface. Select a network interface the IP address is to be assigned to.
- 187. Managing Resellers 187 Managing Reseller Account Profile To view or change a reseller account profile, select Account Director > Reseller Manager > Resellers and then select a reseller account by clicking on its name in the list at the right frame. A reseller account profile includes a number of tabs. Click on one of the links below to read the help topic for one or another tab: General Settings (on page 188) Financial Info (on page 190) Contacts (on page 191) Notifications (on page 192) Users (on page 193) Accounts (on page 194) Hardware Nodes (on page 195) Domains (on page 196) Subscriptions (on page 197) Hiding (on page 199) Billing History (on page 201) Statements (on page 201) Payment Settings (on page 202) Containers (on page 203) IP Pools (on page 204) In this section: Reseller Account General Settings ................................................................... 188 Reseller Financial Info ...................................................................................... 190 Reseller Contact Information ............................................................................. 191 Reseller Notifications Settings .......................................................................... 192 Reseller Account Users .................................................................................... 193 Reseller Customers‟ Accounts .......................................................................... 194 Hardware Nodes Owned by Reseller ................................................................ 195 Reseller Domains.............................................................................................. 196 Reseller‟s Subscriptions .................................................................................... 197 Reseller URL Hiding ......................................................................................... 199 Reseller Account Extended Attributes ............................................................... 200 Reseller Billing History ...................................................................................... 201 Reseller‟s Statements ....................................................................................... 201 Payment Methods Saved for Reseller Account ................................................. 202 Virtuozzo Containers Owned by Reseller .......................................................... 203 IP Pools Allocated for Reseller .......................................................................... 204
- 188. 188 Managing Resellers Reseller Account General Settings The reseller account General Settings include the information related to an account basic profile: The reseller account General Settings view screen differs from the one for editing. In addition to the edit screen, it displays the following read-only information: Reseller ID. The account numerical identifier assigned automatically in the Parallels Business Automation - Standard database. This is a technical information and it can be used for manual Vendor. The name of provider that hosts the reseller account. Typically, the name of the Parallels Business Automation - Standard installation owner, i.e., account with ID 1, in other words, Provider. The buttons serve for: Cancel. Get back to the list of reseller accounts. Login to RCC. Service logging in to reseller tools on behalf of reseller account administrator user. This button allows provider to transparently log in to the Reseller Control Center (RCC) using the reseller account administrator login and password. RCC opens in a new window. Note for provider: if this button is hidden, then there are no users with roles in reseller account and logging in to Reseller Control Center on behalf of this account is not possible. Delete. Remove all the records about the account from the Parallels Business Automation - Standard database. Edit. Edit the reseller account General Settings. You can edit the following data: Reseller Config. A reseller configuration is a pre-defined set of permissions including access to payment, domain registration, anti-fraud, and Key Administrator plug-ins, the number of customers a reseller can host, and the ability for a reseller to have own whois servers. Reseller configurations are managed using the Account Director > Reseller Manager > Reseller Config. Company name. The name of the reseller hosting company shown to their customers. Status. The account current status that defines what can be done by persons registered for the reseller account. An account status defines access permissions to Parallels Business Automation - Standard tools: Active. Access to all Parallels Business Automation - Standard tools available for reseller account administrators. On hold. Billing operations are available. Creation of new customer accounts is now allowed, without respect to a reseller configuration capacity. Address line 1 and 2, City, and so on up to the Fax number - reseller account general contact address. Address verification status. This status makes sense if Taxation is enabled and configured in secure mode, i.e. the option Prevent orders from being paid until following information is approved is enabled and address approval is required to allow orders processing: Approved. Address is approved, reseller‟s orders processing is allowed.
- 189. Managing Resellers 189 Rejected. Address is not approved, orders placed for this reseller account is suspended. Not Checked. The default status assigned to an address after a new reseller account is created.
- 190. 190 Managing Resellers Reseller Financial Info The Financial Info tab shows the information related to the order of settlements and balance. The view screen demonstrates the following read-only information: Receivable. Total balance.The reseller account balance related to the reseller settlements with their customers. Positive balance means that reseller owes money to their customers, negative balance means that customers owe money to the reseller, and zero balance means that neither reseller, nor their customers owe each other. Payable. Balance. The reseller account balance related to settlements with the provider, i.e., the Parallels Business Automation - Standard installation owner. Negative payable balance means that reseller owes money to provider, positive payable balance means that provider owes money to reseller, zero balance means that neither provider, nor reseller owe each other. When a reseller customer pays a reseller, the invoice to reseller is automatically issued by provider billing. This is the way how resellers pay for resold services. Events. Statement generation date is the read-only information. Statements include information about all the billing documents issued for the reseller account during one month, information about the account balance month before and by the moment of a statement generation. To view statements issued, click the Statements tab. Other financial information is editable. In part, it is shown at the view screen, and the rest of it is displayed at the edit screen. To view or change this data, click the Edit button: Discount category. The discount assigned to a reseller account. This discount is applied to services purchased for reseller account and is not applied to invoices issued by provider for resold services. Discount categories are managed using the Billing Director > Discount Manager > Discount Categories. Partner discount. The discount assigned to reseller account and applied to amounts a reseller owes provider for resold services, i.e., to a reseller payables. Partner discounts are selected from a set (if more than one discount category exists) of pre- configured discount categories managed using the Discount Manager. Credit terms. The pre-configured conditions of settlements (on page 88) between provider and reseller for re-sold services. If more than one credit terms are configured, it is possible to reassign it by selecting another one from the relevant drop-down menu. Credit limit. The maximal amount a reseller can owe provider. Services purchased by reseller are provided automatically (except for dedicated servers assignment) while the credit limit is not overdrawn. As soon as the credit limit is overdrawn, services are provided only after payment is received. In general, the credit limit is defined in credit terms, and if you want to use this very value, check the Use value of Credit Limit defined in Credit Terms box. If you would like to assign a custom credit limit, then clear this checkbox, after this the Credit limit field becomes enabled, and you can enter a custom credit limit. Taxation. These settings define taxation policy applied to settlements between provider and reseller, i.e., to the reseller account only (taxes applied to reseller customers‟ accounts are defined separately):
- 191. Managing Resellers 191 VAT number. The value added tax number that provides tax exemption or a special taxation conditions, mostly for EU residents. If tax exemption is in use, i.e., provider has a VA number assigned and falls into a category of companies that have an advantage of tax exemption, then the VAT number assigned to the reseller company can be entered into this field. VAT number verification status. This status makes sense if Taxation is enabled and configured in secure mode, i.e. the option Prevent orders from being paid until following information is approved is enabled and VAT number manual approval is required to allow orders processing: Approved. VAT number is approved, reseller‟s orders processing is allowed. Rejected. VAT number is not approved, orders placed for this reseller account is suspended. Not Checked. The default status assigned to a VAT number after a new reseller account is created. Tax zone assigned manually. Tax zone defines what tax rates are to be applied to an account. Tax zone is a country (or state, for US or Canada) or a specific taxation rule applied to one or more accounts without respect to a country or state of residence. Tax zones are assigned automatically in accordance with account profile. However, if it is needed to set up a special taxation conditions for the reseller account it is possible to create a special tax zone and assign it manually to the reseller account, forcing the application of a particular tax rates. Reseller Contact Information Accounts data (customer name, address, contact phone, fax, etc.) is saved by versions. As soon as an account data is changed, a new version of account data is created. All the previous versions are saved. The previous versions of account contacts can be viewed and managed under the Contacts tab within an account properties. The Contacts tab allows selecting contacts used to send e-mail notifications and in billing documents. An account contacts are stored as blocks of contact info including address, phone, fax numbers, and a contact person name. Contacts are stored and managed by versions. As soon as a contact info is changed, a new version of contact is created. There is a special sub-form entitled as Contact Versions at the Contacts screen. Using the Version drop-down menu, provider can select a contact data version to use, view, or edit. To this effect, select the version and click the Display button. Note: Contacts are not used as login credentials, this is just an additional information attached to an account. To add a new login, it is necessary to register a new person and associate this person with an account, granting this person a user role. This can be done under the Users (on page 193) tab.
- 192. 192 Managing Resellers Reseller Notifications Settings The Notifications tab is designed to make some general settings regarding e-mail notifications initiated by Event Manage (on page 260)r and Mass Mailer (on page 259). Provider can make the message content related settings and select particular events the reseller will be notified about. From Reseller Control Center, Reseller can set e-mail messages content type and allow or cancel mass mail. To view or change all the available settings, click the Edit button. Message content type Allow to receive messages in HTML. To allow sending e-mail notifications addressed to reseller in HTML format, check this box. To cancel HTML messages, clear this box. Language. Select the e-mail notifications language. E-mail character set. Select e-mail notifications encoding. Notification Configuration Accept mass mail notifications. To allow accepting mass mail for the reseller account, check this box. To cancel mall mail, clear this box. The following settings are available for provider only: Customer receives all event notifications. This option is to be selected to send absolutely all e-mails initiated by the Event Manager to reseller account. Customer receives no event notifications. This option is to be selected to cancel sending e-mail notifications initiated by the Event Manager to reseller account. Customer receives all event notifications except the following ones. This option allows selecting events no notifications are to be sent. To select such events, click the Add button and select events by clicking on their names one-by-one from the list that appears in the popup window. The selected events‟ names appear in the form. To renew sending notifications for already selected events, click on the event name in the form (to select several events, keep the CTRL key pressed) and then click the Remove button.
- 193. Managing Resellers 193 Reseller Account Users Account users are registered persons that have role in an account. A role grants a pre- defined set of access permissions. Persons granted a role in a reseller account are treated as reseller staff members, because Roles in reseller account provide access to Reseller Control Center tools (the set of tools depends on access permissions included in a role). Provider can add and edit roles from Provider Control Center using the Configuration Director > Security Manager > Setup. Reseller can view roles and permissions set by provider for reseller accounts from Reseller Control Center in Security Manager > Setup. If a reseller needs more roles, they should contact provider in this matter. Together with reseller account creation, the reseller account Operations Administrator user is created. The e-mail (used as login) and password specified for this user allows logging in to the Reseller Control Center on behalf of this reseller account. The list of reseller account users displays the following: ID. A technical identifier assigned to a registered person in the Parallels Business Automation - Standard database. Note the difference: not a user in an account, but a registered person. A registered person can be removed from an account users, but a personal profile is still stored in the Parallels Business Automation - Standard database. All registered persons can be viewed and managed using the Configuration Director > Security Manager > All Users. If you have removed a registered person from an account users, you can find a person and restore an account user role for this person. If no users exist, then no login credentials exist for a reseller account and thus, there is no ability to log in Reseller Control Center. Name. A user first and last name. Status. A user status that defines whether this user can log in to Reseller Control Center or not: Active. All access permissions are valid for a user. Suspended. User stays a registered person and still has a role in reseller account, but access permissions are temporarily locked, and it is ot possible to log in to Reseller Control Center using this user login and password. E-mail. A user e-mail used as login. To view or change a user profile, click on user ID or name. An account user profile displays the following: Name, Status, E-mail. Same as in the list of users. Language. The interface language to be used when logging into Reseller Control Center using this user login and password. Time Zone. A user personal time zone. Time zone is taken into account in notifications and service messages and allows one to get rid of the need in re- calculating time. Address - Fax. These fields contain postal address and phone/fax numbers. In Provider Control Center only: Comment. Free-form comment. Skin. The skin to be used when logging in to Reseller Control Center using this user login and password.
- 194. 194 Managing Resellers Roles. Role or roles a user is assigned in reseller account. To add or change a role, click the Edit button and move a new role from the Available roles menu to the User roles menu. Please note that a role assignment is mandatory is you want to keep a registered person as a user in an account. If you want to temporarily cancel permissions for a user, change status into Suspended, to drop access permissions remove a user. The buttons at the user profile view screen serve for: Cancel. Back to the list of users without any changes. In Provider Control Center only: Login to RCC. Service logging in to Reseller Control Center. Delete. Remove a user from account and keep a user profile in database as a registered person. This button does not delete a personal profile, it breaks role assignment and detaches a user form an account. All registered persons and users (persons that have permissions in accounts) can be found under Configuration Director > Security Manager > All Users. Edit. Edit user profile. Reseller Customers‟ Accounts The list of reseller customers‟ accounts displays the following: ID. Numerical identifier assigned to an account in the Parallels Business Automation - Standard database. Account Name. The name of account. Customer accounts are named by the name of an account owner. Balance. Account current balance. Negative balance means that a customer owes money to reseller, positive balance means that reseller owes money to a customer, zero balance means that neither customer, nor reseller owe each other. Status. An account status tells what operations can be performed on behalf of an account in Parallels Business Automation - Standard: Active status means that full range of operations may be performed within on behalf of this Account: log in and manage subscriptions in Control Panel, order new services. On Hold status means that an Account is out of service. In Provider Control Center reseller customers‟ accounts are managed using Account Director > Customer Manager > Reseller Customers. In Reseller Control Center customer accounts are managed using Account Director > Customer Manager > Customers.
- 195. Managing Resellers 195 Hardware Nodes Owned by Reseller The Hardware Nodes tab displays the list of Plesk (physical or Container-based virtual node) and/or Virtuozzo nodes owned by reseller, if any: ID. Identifier assigned to a node in HSPcomlete database on registration. Shortname. A name assigned to refer to a node. This is not a hostname, but just an identifier. IP Address. An IP address assigned to a node. Accts. How many reseller customers‟ accounts have subscriptions at this node. New Accounts. Whether it is allowed to add subscriptions for new accounts or not. - Yes, - No. Platform. The product installed at a node. Reg. Status. A node registration status: Registered - the connection to a Hardware Node was established successfully, a Hardware Node is fully manageable. Conflicts - the data found on a node does not correspond to the data existing in Parallels Business Automation - Standard database or some other problems occurred during registration. To resolve the data conflicts, provider can use the special tool provided in Parallels Business Automation - Standard - Conflicts Resolver (on page 277) available under the Conflicts tab within a node settings. Unregistered - the connection with a Hardware Node is not established but a Hardware Node configuration is stored in the Parallels Business Automation - Standard database. Such a Hardware Node cannot be managed from Parallels Business Automation - Standard web-based interface. Availability. Current status of a node in respect to establishing connection to it. Unavailable node usually means some kind of hardware or network problems on a node. SLM.This column makes sense for Virtuozzo nodes or Plesk virtual nodes, because SLM is the Virtuozzo related term. Please refer to the Virtuozzo user documentation for detailed description of Virtuozzo old-style UBC and newly introduced SLM QoS parameters. - SLM is used, - UBC is used. Owner. The name of an account that owns a node.
- 196. 196 Managing Resellers Reseller Domains The domains registered for reseller account are displayed under the Domains tab: ID. A domain identifier assigned in the Parallels Business Automation - Standard database. Domain. A domain name. Added by. The name of a person registered in Parallels Business Automation - Standard a domain has been added by. Registrar. The name of registrar a domain is registered by. In Parallels Business Automation - Standard, the name of a domain registration plug-in is shown. However, a domain registration plug-in name typically tells about registrar a plug-in is designed for. „Registered elsewhere‟ means that a domain has been delegated to Parallels Business Automation - Standard DNS and there is no information about registrar in the Parallels Business Automation - Standard database. Exp. Date. Domain registration expiration date. Status. A domain current status that tells what currently goes on with a domain. The Registered status means that a domain is available. Other statuses, except for „Expired‟ - domain registration period is over - are are intermediate and self- explanatory.
- 197. Managing Resellers 197 Reseller‟s Subscriptions Subscriptions created both for reseller account and for reseller‟s customers are displayed under the Subscriptions tab: ID. A subscription numerical identifier in the Parallels Business Automation - Standard database. Hostname. The Container or dedicated server hostname or domain name for Plesk subscription, or just domain name for domain-registration subscriptions. Note: Miscellaneous subscriptions provide custom and non-hosting services like additional support etc, so there cannot be any hostnames in this case. Thus, in order not to leave blank cells for miscellaneous subscription types in the Hostname column the name of hosting plan a subscription is based upon is shown. The link in this column leads not to a hosting plan settings, but to the subscription properties, similarly to the other subscription types. Hosting Plan Type. The type of hosting provided by a hosting plan a subscription is based upon (Dedicated, Virtuozzo Container, Plesk Client, etc.). You can filter the list of subscriptions down to the particular hosting type, use Search. Hosting Plan. The name of a hosting plan a subscription is based upon. Account Name. The name of an account owning a subscription. Status. Subscription current status. A subscription statuses are changed automatically and depend on the services provisioning: Pending - An Order was paid, appropriate Invoice was generated. Services were not provided in full scale, for certain reasons. You should process an order manually (click the Process Order button on the order details screen) to retry services provisioning. Active - An Order was paid, an Invoice was generated. Ordered services were provided; On Hold - all operations in respect to a subscription are temporarily suspended. A Subscription can be brought into „On Hold‟ status automatically, for example in the case if renewal Order was not paid and in rare cases, if a customer Account was brought into „On Hold‟ state; Graced - A subscription had expired, and a renewal Order was not paid yet. However before a a subscription will be deleted, a customer may be granted with some additional time called grace period (e.g., several days) to pay an order and renew a subscription. The grace period duration can be defined in Credit Terms. A customer or a provider can upgrade a graced subscription to another hosting plan in the same way as for an active subscriptions. Expired - A subscription had expired. However in this case, the grace period can be restarted by Provider. Deleted - all operations in respect to a Subscription are impossible. To delete a subscription, click the Terminate button at Subscription General Settings. Terminating - this status occurs in case the delayed subscription termination (termination period) is configured. Termination period is set in Credit Terms and defines how long the expired subscription or a subscription that have been manually terminated by provider or reseller stays in database.
- 198. 198 Managing Resellers Trial. Whether the services included in a subscription are provided for free during the trial period, or not: green tick in this column means that a subscription is trial, red cross - non-trial. The trial period can be set per hosting plan (for all hosting types excluding dedicated hosting and Plesk server in Container). Start Date. The starting day of a subscription period. End Date. The last date of subscription period.
- 199. Managing Resellers 199 Reseller URL Hiding Parallels Business Automation - Standard allows hiding Reseller‟s URL in such a way that Reseller website seems absolutely independent from HSP server (and other Resellers). Reseller hiding is included into a reseller account creation wizard. A reseller account cannot be saved without hiding configured. If a Reseller does not have a domain, then a temporal domain is created in HSP domain. Important: Resellers hiding is necessary for reseller store to work in case a reseller uses provider store installation. You can assign an IP address from your Management Node IP pool to a domain delegated by a reseller so that your Management Node (i.e., the Reseller Control Center and reseller store) will be accessible by a new reseller‟s URL. To change the hiding options, click the Edit button: Reseller’s own domain name Domain. Enter a reseller domain name used for reseller store. If you do not sure about a domain name to enter, use the default one. By default, a reseller hiding URL is formed of a reseller account administrator name written in one string in lowercase and your default domain. Add into DNS. Check this box to create a domain zone file in the Parallels Business Automation - Standard DNS, i.e., provide the DNS hosting for the reseller domain. Name servers Select a name servers set. Please select a name servers set to be used for the domains owned by the reseller. The ability for a reseller to have own name servers set is defined in a Reseller Configuration. Reseller’s own IP address Set the option button to one of the following: Share provider‟s IP address. Use your IP address for the reseller domain. Add new IP address to Parallels Business Automation - Standard server. Add a new dedicated IP address for a reseller domain. IP address. Enter a reseller IP address. The composition of the rest of the fields depends on the type of Parallels Business Automation - Standard installation: If Parallels Business Automation - Standard is installed inside a Virtuozzo Container:
- 200. 200 Managing Resellers Hardware node root password. Indicate the root password of the server that hosts the Virtuozzo Container with Parallels Business Automation - Standard installed. This is necessary to make your Management Node installed inside one of Containers hosted in this Hardware Node accessible over the network. If Parallels Business Automation - Standard is installed on a physical server, you can register a new IP address in the same way as for Linux conventional network interface: Netmask. Enter a network mask. Interface. Select a network interface the IP address is to be assigned to. Reseller Account Extended Attributes Extended attributes are additional fields added to an account profile. These fields allow storing additional information in an account profile. Extended attributes are added automatically in case a country specific accounting plug-in is used or manually, using API (see Parallels Business Automation SDK).
- 201. Managing Resellers 201 Reseller Billing History In Provider Control Center, all documents issued for a reseller account are shown under the Billing History tab within a reseller account properties. The Billing History includes both documents issued on a reseller own purchases and invoices issued by provider on reseller‟s customers‟ purchases: ID. A document identifier in the Parallels Business Automation - Standard database. This is a technical number having no relation to a document reference number. Document Type. The type of document (Invoice, Order, etc.) Doc. Num. A document reference number. Subscriptions. A the name of a subscription a document has been issued for. Document Date. The date a document has been issued. Status. A document status tells what was done to a document and what can be done now. The most common statuses are: Open. For payables: a document is not paid or paid in part. For payments or credit adjustments: a document balance is not used or used in part. Completed. For orders: ordered services are provided. For payments and credit adjustments: a document balance is used. Pending. Used for orders mostly and means that an order processing has been suspended. Other statuses are self-explanatory. Total. A document total amount. Balance. For payables - an unpaid part of a document balance, for payments or credit adjustments - an unused amount remaining. Reseller‟s Statements Statements are monthly reports about an account balance with detailed list of all documents issued during the last month. A statement allows an account owner to know out what documents contributed in an account balance during a month. Statements are generated automatically. The list of statements displays the following: ID. A statement identifier assigned automatically in the Parallels Business Automation - Standard database. This is a technical information and it id not related to a statement reference number. Statement Date. The date a statement has been generated. Acc. No. Numerical identifier assigned in the Parallels Business Automation - Standard database to an account a statement has been generated for. Account Name. The name of an account a statement has been generated for. To view a statement details, click on its generation date or ID.
- 202. 202 Managing Resellers Payment Methods Saved for Reseller Account Payment methods, i.e., credit cards and bank accounts saved in the Parallels Business Automation - Standard database for a reseller account are listed under the Payment Settings tab: ID. A numerical identified assigned to a credit card or bank account data stored in the Parallels Business Automation - Standard database. Name. A credit card or a bank account hidden number. Type. Credit card type logo or a bank account type name. For bank accounts, the name of a bank transfer plug-in a payment method belongs to is used. Expiration date. This column makes sense for credit cards. A credit card expiration date is shown here. As for bank accounts, expiration date is not in use in Parallels Business Automation - Standard, and thus, in most cases for bank accounts an expiration date is specified as „Never‟. Account. Reseller account name. Status. Credit card status: Unchecked. Status not defined. This status is assigned by default to all credit cards just saved in Parallels Business Automation - Standard database. Unchecked credit card can be used for payments. After first successful payment, a credit card status becomes „OK‟ automatically. OK. A payment method is approved and allowed for payments. Disabled. Credit card is disabled for payments. This status can be assigned both manually and automatically, for example if in Commerce Director > Payment Processing > Secure Storage > General Settings tab the option Disable the Payment Method if the processing center declines the transaction is enabled. Error. Transaction with a payment method has failed, an error has occurred during transaction processing. Expired. A payment method has expired. This status is used for credit cards mostly. Allow payments. This column shows whether a payment method can be used for payments or not: - Payments are allowed. If a payment method status allows payments, ( Unchecked or OK), it is used for payments. - Payments are not allowed without respect to a payment method status. Use for recurring billing. Whether a payment method can be used for automated payments applied to renewal orders: - Recurring payments are allowed. If a payment method status allows payments, (Unchecked or OK), it is used for recurring payments. - Recurring payments are not allowed without respect to a payment method status.
- 203. Managing Resellers 203 Virtuozzo Containers Owned by Reseller Virtuozzo Containers owned by reseller and their customers are shown under the Containers tab. For detailed description of controls located above the list of Containers, see Managing Containers chapter of this manual. ID. Identifier assigned to a Container in the Parallels Business Automation - Standard database. Name. Container hostname. IP address. IP address assigned to Container. Status. Container status tells what going on to a Container. For detailed description of Container statuses, see Managing Containers chapter of this manual. Account. The name of an account that owns a Container. Node. For Provider Control Center only. The name of hardware node registered in provider data center that hosts Container.
- 204. 204 Managing Resellers IP Pools Allocated for Reseller IP addresses in Parallels Business Automation - Standard are managed by assets called IP pools. IP pools allocated to a reseller account are shown under the IP Pools tab. The allocation of IP addresses in an IP pool is restricted by type of hosting and additionally can be restricted by reseller accounts and hardware nodes. An IP pool always has an assignment by allocation type. As for accounts that can get IP addresses, an IP pool can be: Common, when IPs are allocated to any account. These IP addresses from common IP pools are available for resellers as well, but such IP pools are not shown in Reseller Control Center, and IP addresses allocation is performed in the background. Private, when only provider can use IP addresses from an IP pool. Dedicated to a reseller. The list of IP pools displays the following: ID. An identifier assigned to an IP pool in the Parallels Business Automation - Standard database. Name. An IP pool name, just an alphanumerical identifier used to recognize an IP pool in interface. First IP. Starting IP address in an IP pool Last IP. Ending IP in an IP pool Alloc.type. The type of hosting IP addresses can be allocated for. Available. The number IP addresses available for allocation. Leases. The number of allocated IP addresses. Total. The total number of IP addresses in an IP pool. Creating Hosting Plan for Reseller To make a hosting plan available for a particular reseller or several resellers, during Hosting Plan creation, or later, go to the Billing Director - Product Manager - Hosting Plans, select a hosting plan and then click the General Settings tab. Check the Resellers can create a copy of the current hosting plan box. After this, set the radio button to the Selected Reseller only and click the Select button. The popup window containing the list of all Resellers appears. Select the Reseller from the list.
- 205. CHAPTER 13 Managing Receivables This chapter advises how to handle customers orders, invoices issued for your customers, adjustments, and customers payments, - all documents that contribute in your hosting company balance. In this chapter: Understanding Parallels Business Automation - Standard Billing Workflow ....... 206 Viewing and Immediately Operating Receivables .............................................. 206 Processing Documents Paid by Credit Cards .................................................... 211 Processing Documents Paid by Bank Transfers ................................................ 212 Refunding Documents Paid by Credit Cards ..................................................... 214 Recreating Orders With Updated Tax Rates...................................................... 215 Printing out Documents ..................................................................................... 215
- 206. 206 Managing Receivables Understanding Parallels Business Automation - Standard Billing Workflow The scheme of pre-pay for services provided is implemented within the Parallels Business Automation - Standard system. However, you can provide services on credit as well (create a subscription manually from Provider Control Center and set “Apply changes immediately” in the Commerce Director - Payment Processing). Малюнок 4: HSPcomplete billing - basic workflow. If a subscriber exceeds the quote of paid resources stated by Subscription, the Invoice for resource overusage is being automatically generated. Viewing and Immediately Operating Receivables Your hosting company balance is the sum of all your customers and resellers account balances. A customer or a reseller account balance is calculated as a total sum of all payments and credit adjustments with a total amount of Invoices, Orders, and Debit Adjustments deducted. Positive account balance means that an account owner has a certain overpayment, so Provider owes services (or money) to a customer. Negative account balance means that a customer or a reseller owes money to Provider. Zero account balance means that neither Provider, nor a customer do not owe money to each other.
- 207. Managing Receivables 207 Your hosting company balance does not reflect your earnings. It just shows whether your customers owe money to you or you owe money to your customers. Your actual revenue is shown in Billing Reports (on page 231). To view the total balance, select Receivable from the Billing Director submenu and then click Balance on the Receivable submenu. The balance information is grouped under the three tabs: Total Receivable shows the following: Total balance. The sum of all your customers and resellers account balances Accounts total balance. The sum of all customer accounts balances. Reseller‟s total balance. The sum of all reseller accounts balances Balance per Account. All customer accounts listing with balance shown for each account. Balance per Reseller. All reseller accounts listing with balance shown for each account. When you are browsing an account profile, you can view balance under the Financial Info tab. You can adjust accounts balance by entering credit adjustments or credit invoices (increase) or debit adjustments (decrease). To view receivables, go to the Billing Director - Receivable - Documents. For your convenience, documents are grouped into separate lists, by types: Orders - the documents that include information about Hosting Plans or additional services ordered by customers. Orders are generated automatically, either when a subscription renewal is needed (for an automated renewal the special settings can be configured for a subscription) or after a customer places an order in an online store or in the Control Panel Upgrade Center. Invoices - invoices are generated automatically after paying the corresponding Orders, or manually. Manual creation of invoices is possible in two cases: When a Provider creates an Abstract Invoice that is not bound to any order, for example to charge a customer for some additional services. When a Provider creates a so-called Credit Invoice that allows increasing a customer account balance by refunding customer previous payments with explicit specification of services that were refunded or discounted. Credit invoices work in the same way as credit adjustments, but are accounted in billing reports and have the same numeration (IDs) as all the other invoices. Credit invoices balance is always a negative value since credit invoices are typically issued for refunds, though credit invoices increases accounts balance. Payments - off-line and online payments for hosting services. An Order can be paid by several payments; Adjustments - adjustments are used for Accounts‟ balance adjustment. For example, Credit Adjustment is applied if a customer was overcharged (to increase the Account balance), and Debit Adjustment is applied if a customer ordered additional services (increase the billed sum and decrease Account balance).
- 208. 208 Managing Receivables Payment Requests - requests from customers that want to put some amount on their account balance, without respect to existence of any unpaid documents. Payment Requests allow customers to enter a credit card or a bank account payment that can be used in future. For a payment to be added, a Payment Request must be manually approved by Provider. Having been approved, a credit card payment request originates a new online payment and a bank account payment request originates an offline payment. On each document details page you can download its PDF printable version by clicking on the Download PDF button. Orders and Invoices can be paid both offline and online, both manually from the Provider Control Center and by a customer (by a credit card or a bank account) from the Control Panel. The documents intended to be paid by credit cards or bank accounts call for specific processing and thus, they are not only enlisted in the list of all receivables, but also grouped separately, in the Commerce Director -Online Payments (on page 211) or Bank Transfers (on page 212) lists under the Commerce Director. In this section: Processing Offline Payments and Changing Payment Method .......................... 209 Increasing Accounts Balance by Online Payment or Bank Transfer .................. 209 Editing Orders and Invoices .............................................................................. 210 Issuing Invoices Manually.................................................................................. 211 Reopening Cutoff Invoices ................................................................................ 211
- 209. Managing Receivables 209 Processing Offline Payments and Changing Payment Method Orders intended to be paid offline are collected in the Billing Director - Receivable - Documents - Orders list. You can enter an offline payment from the Billing Director - Receivable - Documents - Payments. When you enter a payment, you will be automatically offered to apply this payment to the unpaid order ( or invoice or debit adjustment, if such exist for a given account) In some cases to fasten the Order payment process (or if you have an arrangement with the Account holder), you can select the payment method and pay an Order online or apply existing payments. To this effect select an order and click the Details tab. Then click the Change Payment Method button. The list of all payment methods available appears on the screen. You can pay by the credit card (use the existing one if any or enter a new one), a bank account or you can pay offline using both the new offline payment or credit adjustment or the existing ones. Increasing Accounts Balance by Online Payment or Bank Transfer The Parallels Business Automation - Standard Control Panel provides an opportunity for your customers to enter abstract online payments, which can be kept for future payments in case there are no unpaid documents on a customer account at the moment. Customers can enter such payments to apply them in future to invoices or renewal orders or to pay some document in part (for example a renewal order). If any unpaid documents exist, such payment will be automatically applied to these documents, one-by-one, till a payment amount is used up or all documents are paid. All the online payments entered in such a manner result in creation of a specific financial document visible from the Control Center only - a Payment Request that can be found in the Billing Director - Receivable - Documents - Payment Requests. Depending on the Payment Processing settings (whether online payments require manual approval to be processed or are processed automatically), the newly entered Payment Requests stay in the Open state awaiting for manual approval or being processed immediately and then become Completed and followed by the corresponding Online Payment put on a relevant Account balance. To approve a Payment Request manually, go to the Commerce Director > Online Payments > Documents, (if a payment was by a credit card) or to Commerce Director > Bank Transfers > Documents (if a payment was by a bark transfer) and look in the Documents for Approval queue. Open the needed document and approve its further processing. A credit card payment request will become an online payment and a bank transfer payment request will become an online payment.
- 210. 210 Managing Receivables In case a Provider or Reseller do not want to allow a transaction at all, any Payment Request in the Open state can be terminated. To this effect, click on the Payment Request ID to open a document details and then click the Terminate button. Please note that the terminated Payment request cannot be re-processed. The processed Payment Requests can be refunded. The Refund button appears on a Payment Request details screen after the document is approved and processed. If needed, such an arbitrary payment can be entered for an account from the Control Center, by a Provider (or Reseller) staff member. To this effect, a Payment Request should be entered, and in this case, without respect to Payment Processing settings, a Payment Request is processed immediately. Editing Orders and Invoices You may wish to apply certain changes to your orders or invoices: add or edit comments, add supplementary charges, configure taxation settings or offer discounts. To edit orders/invoices: 1 Go to Billing Director > Receivable > Documents, select an order or invoice by clicking on the Document Type or its ID. 2 On the opened Details tab click Edit under the details table. You can change/add/remove the following information on the edit form: Comments. Usually this is the title of the document, e.g. Order on Misc HP purchase. Details. This is an opportunity to configure additional charges apart from those incorporated into the hosting plan, e.g. for the installation assistance. The document details form also allows you to enter the discounts you wish to apply to this document, e.g. Discount for the Miscellaneous Hosting Plan 10% -20$ You can vary the number of the details to create by choosing the appropriate number form the Create details drop-down menu and clicking Display to refresh the section. Taxation. You are offered the following taxation options: Amounts include all taxes, the taxes are calculated automatically and the document amount is split into the net and tax amounts. Amounts do not include taxes, the tax amount is calculated and added automatically. Do not include taxes. Add custom tax. Provide the tax name/description in the field below and specify the tax amount in the relevant field.
- 211. Managing Receivables 211 Issuing Invoices Manually In general invoices in Parallels Business Automation - Standard billing are generated automatically, when orders are being paid or in case a subscriber uses resources (e.g., traffic) over the limits stated in his (or her) subscription. However, it is possible to issue invoices manually, for example, to bill a subscriber for some custom or additional services that cannot be provided in the frame of a subscription upgrade or if there is the need to adjust a customer account balance. Generally, an invoice issued for a customer account decreases this account balance by an invoice total amount. However, if it is necessary to increase an account balance, an invoice can be used as an accountable replacement of a credit adjustment. Such an invoice is called a credit invoice. To add an arbitrary invoice or a credit invoice, open the Billing Director submenu and select Receivable. Click Documents on the Receivable submenu. As the lists of receivables appear on the screen, select the Invoices tab. Reopening Cutoff Invoices After the period of time during which an Invoice should be paid is over, and an invoice is still not paid, such an Invoice becomes overdue and penalty (overdue charge) is imposed; in this case an additional Overdue Invoice is issued, however, the charged services are provided during some time called the overdue period. When the overdue period is over, an invoice becomes cutoff. Both the due and overdue periods are defined in the Credit Terms (on page 88) assigned to an Account. The cutoff invoices are disabled for payment. However if needed, a cutoff invoice can be reopened and paid. To reopen a cutoff invoice, please go to the Billing Director - Receivable - Documents. Select an invoice you want to reopen and after an invoice details appear, click the Reopen Invoice button. After an invoice is reopened, you can pay it at this described earlier in this guide (on page 209). Processing Documents Paid by Credit Cards Parallels Business Automation - Standard provides the flexible tool for credit-card paid orders and invoices control and processing. All the orders intended to be paid by credit cards are grouped in the single repository available in the Commerce Director - Online Payments - Documents, such as:
- 212. 212 Managing Receivables New orders placed from HSPstore or Control Panel (via Upgrade Center) and intended to be paid by credit card. Note that this depends upon the HSPstore online-payment processing settings. An Order is always being processed in two steps: withdrawal of money from credit card and creation of Subscription (processing itself). In HSPstore General Settings you can select one of the following: everything performed automatically, or one of the Order-processing steps requires manual approval. Only in the latter case an Order will be placed in the Commerce Director - Online Payments - Documents list, so that you can control the transaction. In the case of automatic transaction and subscription creation, an Order will fall into the Billing Director - Receivable - Documents list; Renewal orders generated automatically at the end of Subscription period or renewal orders generated manually, on demand. You can view or adjust the Subscription renewal settings in Account Director - Subscription Manager - Subscriptions - subscription General Settings. Малюнок 5: Credit cards processing. If a Subscription was created for some customer by HSP staff member from Provider Control Center, then an order will be placed in the Billing Director - Receivable - Documents list. Processing Documents Paid by Bank Transfers All receivables are grouped in a common list, including documents intended to be paid by bank transfers. However, the special set of tools for bank transfers management is provided. For example, from the common list of receivables it is possible to view or pay (by changing a payment method) any of documents that are not included in a batch file yet. But in order to generate a batch file you should turn to the Batches module under the Billing Director - Bank Transfers. Parallels Business Automation - Standard supports two bank account types: Norma 19 DTAUS To start accepting bank transfer payments, you need to configure bank transfer plug-ins (on page 96) properly.
- 213. Managing Receivables 213 The scheme of bank transfers processing implemented in Parallels Business Automation - Standard is the following: 1 Customer places an order in the online store or upgrades his (or her) subscription from the Control Panel or places a payment request to increase account balance or pays a resource overusage invoice and selects the bank account payment method. 2 The document is automatically placed into the Documents to be Batched list under the Commerce Director > Bank Transfers > Documents. 3 Parallels Business Automation - Standard automatically sorts documents by bank account types (Norma 19 or DTAUS), and you can compose a batch in one click. If an open batch exists, and some more documents intended to be paid by the same bank account type appear, Parallels Business Automation - Standard offers to append these documents to an existing batch. You can also manually add or remove documents to or from an open batch. 4 After a batch is composed, you can generate a batch file to be submitted to a bank to process a transfer. When a batch file is already submitted to a bank, you can start services provisioning before an official bank response is received. It is possible to set the automated services start after batch file is generated or manual approval, transaction decline penalty, and automated approval of pending transactions (Commerce Director > Bank Transfers >Setup). 5 When you receive the bank response, you can manually approve the documents or check the automatically processed documents and if needed, close invoices or payments in case a transaction was declined by a bank.
- 214. 214 Managing Receivables Refunding Documents Paid by Credit Cards The processed orders (i.e., money captured and the subscription is created) can be refunded via the corresponding invoice. To refund the processed order (such orders have the “Complete” status), go to the Commerce Director - Online Payments Documents - Processed Documents list and select an order. As the order details appear, in the General Information part of the form click on the order ID and then click the Payment History tab. The corresponding invoice(s) appear. Click on the invoice ID and as the invoice details appear, click on the Refund button. When you refund the completed invoice, you can select an action that will follow the refund. To select an action under the corresponding subscription, account, or credit card used to pay an invoice, set the option button to one of the variants available for each object: Action to be applied to subscription: Leave unchanged Put on hold Terminate Action to be applied to account: Leave unchanged Put on hold Delete Action to be applied to credit card: Leave unchanged Disable credit card
- 215. Managing Receivables 215 Recreating Orders With Updated Tax Rates If you use taxation in Parallels Business Automation - Standard (on page 89) and by the moment when the customer‟s order is already calculated but not paid yet (i.e., the corresponding invoice was not generated), the taxes have been changed, it is possible to recalculate the order (i.e., recreate it). If recalculation is needed, you will be prompted when trying to approve or pay an order and the Recreate button will appear on the screen showing an order details. Printing out Documents For your convenience Parallels Business Automation - Standard is shipped with an ability to print out receivable documents in the PDF format on a mass scale. It means that multiple documents can be selected by the provider and printed out in a batch after being automatically converted to PDF. Complete batch history is saved, so one can reprint a particular batch if needed. To select documents for printing, use Billing Director > Receivable > Print Documents. Note: Different PDF generators can be plugged into Parallels Business Automation - Standard for creating PDF documents from print forms. By default, the htmldoc PDF generator is used in Parallels Business Automation - Standard. To plug a different PDF generator, go to Configuration Director > Miscellaneous Settings > PDF Generator Setup.
- 216. CHAPTER 14 Managing Subscriptions Subscriptions are generated automatically after a customer pays for the services ordered. Depending on a customer needs, you can: Enable the automated renewal-order generation (on page 217) (or you can generate the renewal order on demand at any moment). Re-send to a customer a subscription notification (on page 220) Restart a subscription grace period (on page 218). Synchronize (on page 220) a customer system with subscription terms. Activate a dedicated server subscription (on page 53). Upgrade dedicated server subscriptions (on page 220). In this chapter: Renewing Subscriptions.................................................................................... 217 Managing Subscription Grace Period ................................................................ 218 Terminating Subscriptions................................................................................. 218 Changing Account for Subscription ................................................................... 219 Upgrading Dedicated Third-Party Subscriptions................................................ 220 Sending Subscription Notification...................................................................... 220 Synchronizing Customer System With Subscription .......................................... 220 Managing Resold Subscriptions ........................................................................ 221 Managing Subscription Attributes...................................................................... 224
- 217. Managing Subscriptions 217 Renewing Subscriptions It is not possible for your customer to subscribe for a year and pay each month, for example. When a customer purchases a hosting plan, he (or she) prepays for a certain subscription period. When subscription period expires in a few days, and the renewal order is still absent, a customer receives an e-mail notification. You can determine, how many notifications will be sent to a customer (you can set up to 20 different notification periods i.e., the periods of time before subscription expiration date when a customer receives a notification). This can be done by customizing the Credit Terms associated with customer Account. Your customers can make the renewal settings for their subscriptions via the Control Panel. But a customer may yet miss the subscription expiration date. To avoid the undesirable termination of a subscription, you can enable the automated creation of the renewal order. Moreover, if needed, you can create the renewal order at any moment. Note: Your customers can have several accounts and several subscriptions registered for each account. You can view all the subscriptions registered for a given account by selecting the Account Director - Customer Manager - Customers - and then select an account. Click the Subscriptions tab among the account properties. And you can view the list of all subscriptions existing in your Parallels Business Automation - Standard system in the Subscription Manager -> Subscriptions. In respect to renewing a subscription, you have two main options: Enable the automated generation of a renewal order. In this case, the renewal order will be generated before the subscription expiration date, in accordance with the renewal order period defined in the credit terms and for the subscription period and fee defined by you in the subscription renewal settings. To adjust a subscription renewal settings, click the Edit button on a subscription properties screen. Generate a renewal order manually. And in this case, you can do one of the following: Generate the renewal order in accordance with the existing subscription period, i.e., just repeat the previous order (period and price). Generate the renewal order for another pre-defined subscription period. To this effect, you should click the Generate Renewal Order button and select one of the pre-defined subscription periods, which are currently available for the Hosting Plan a given subscription was created. Generate the renewal order for the custom period at the pro-rated price calculated for the pre-defined subscription period selected. In this case, you should click the Generate Renewal Order button, select one of the pre-defined subscription periods as this described above and select the custom date of subscription expiration.
- 218. 218 Managing Subscriptions Managing Subscription Grace Period In case a subscription had expired (or a grace period is about to expire), you can restart the grace period manually. To this effect, go to the Account Director - Subscription Manager - Subscriptions. Select the subscription and then click the General Settings tab. Then click the Restart Grace Period button. Terminating Subscriptions Subscriptions are terminated either automatically, when subscription period, grace period, and expiration period are over and a subscription has not been renewed, or manually: Subscription period is a pre-paid period a customer uses the purchased services. Grace period starts when subscription period is over. Subscription is in the Graced status. Services are still available and a customer can pay the renewal order. Expiration period starts when the grace period is over. Subscription status becomes Expired. Services are not available and a customer cannot pay the renewal order any more. However, provider or reseller can restart the grace period manually, which activates services and gives a customer an opportunity to pay a renewal order. When expiration period is over a subscription is terminated and all the data connected with this subscription is removed from database and cannot be restored. Thus, subscription termination is reasonable only if neither a customer, nor provider or reseller does not need a subscription data any more. Provider or reseller can terminate a subscription manually at any moment (go to Account Director > Subscription Manager > Subscriptions, select a subscription and click the Terminate button on a subscription General Settings screen). If such termination happens accidentally, there is no way back and a subscription data will be lost. To prevent the undesired subscription data loss, provider or reseller can configure the delayed subscription termination and after this, all subscriptions that must have been terminated stay „alive‟, and collected under Subscription Manager > Termination Requests. In addition, customers can send subscription termination requests from Control Panel. A customer can click the Request Termination button at a subscription details screen and a corresponding request will appear in Provider or Reseller Control Center, under Subscription Manager > Termination Requests. Provider or reseller can schedule subscription termination and issue a termination invoice of an arbitrary amount. Note: It is possible to set the termination delay period with ability to manually destroy or activate subscriptions. After the termination period is over the terminating subscriptions are destroyed automatically. In addition, the manual termination mode ca be set. In the manual mode, subscriptions termination or activation can be performed only manually.
- 219. Managing Subscriptions 219 The following actions are possible for terminating subscriptions: Destroy - for all terminating subscriptions without respect to the status a subscription have had before termination. This button in its turn, offers the two options: Delete target system. Finally removes a subscription from the database together with all the data related to this subscription kept on the node where a subscription had been hosted. This operation cannot be undone. Keep target system Removes a subscription data from the Parallels Business Automation - Standard database, but leaves the system (Plesk domain or client, or Container) on the node. Activate - only for subscriptions that have had the Active status before termination. This button activates a subscription back. Restart Grace Period - for subscriptions that have had the Graced or Expired statuses before termination. This button brings a subscription into the Graced status. The delayed subscriptions termination is set using Credit Terms (on page 88). Please note that since Credit Terms are assigned per account, the subscription termination terms depend on the Credit Terms assigned to an account. To configure the delayed subscription termination: Create a new Credit Terms with Termination Period (on page 88) or with a manual subscription termination configured. Or adjust the existing Credit Terms. Changing Account for Subscription You may need to move a subscription to a different account for a number of reasons. This can be done with the help of a special wizard. To invoke the wizard, go to Account Director > Subscription Manager > Subscriptions, select a subscription and click the Change Account button on a subscription General Settings screen. To assign a subscription to a different account: 1 In the Select New Account section select the new account you wish to assign the subscription to by clicking on the Browse button. Press Next to continue through the wizard. 2 On the opened screen you are offered the following configuration options: Select a hosting plan for the subscription. If the new account belongs to the same vendor, the current hosting plan is checked by default. To change the hosting plan, check another one on the list. Change your billing settings: select a different billing period in the drop-down menu and set another subscription end date. You can set the subscription expiration date to the current date by clicking on the Now button. Click Next to proceed to the final wizard page. 3 On the last page you can review the old configuration (Current Settings) and the new one (New Settings). In case you want to make any changes to the new settings, you can return Back. To save the changes, click Finish.
- 220. 220 Managing Subscriptions Upgrading Dedicated Third-Party Subscriptions After the Third-Party Dedicated subscription is activated, a customer can use the Parallels Business Automation - Standard Control Panel to upgrade the subscription by ordering more network traffic per month or more IP addresses. Traffic cannot be counted via the Parallels Business Automation - Standard web-based interface. A customer can account network traffic on his (or her) dedicated node and then pass this data to Provider. Provider takes care of adding the traffic statistics to Parallels Business Automation - Standard database. If the traffic statistics were entered in Parallels Business Automation - Standard database, the traffic usage statistics diagram for the third-party node can be viewed in the Control Panel and in case a customer overuses traffic, traffic-overusage invoices will be generated. A customer can order additional traffic via the Control Panel Upgrade Center and in this case Provider will receive a e-mail notification and the corresponding order will be placed. Then Provider can increase the traffic quote manually, after a customer pays the corresponding order. And additional IP addresses can be easily assigned to a Hardware Node via the Provider Control Center web-based interface. When a customer orders additional IP address(es) in the Control Panel Upgrade Center, Provider receives a e-mail notification and the corresponding order. After this, Provider goes to the Service Director - Servers Manager - Dedicated Servers, selects the Hardware Node and edits its network configuration (adds or releases one or more IP addresses). Sending Subscription Notification When a Subscription is created, an automatically generated notification is being sent to a customer‟s e-mail address indicated in his (or her) Account profile. To make sure that a customer will receive the notification, you can re-send the subscription-creation notification at any moment and to any e-mail address. Before re- sending, you can edit the notification message (on page 260). To this effect, please select the Subscription has been created event from the Event Manager Settings. To send the subscription creation notification, go to the Account Director - Subscription Manager - Subscriptions. Select a subscription and then click the General Settings tab. Then click the Send Invitation button. Synchronizing Customer System With Subscription
- 221. Managing Subscriptions 221 In some cases, a customer‟s system parameters (Plesk domain, Plesk client, or Virtuozzo Container) can differ from the corresponding subscription parameters. This can happen accidentally. Such a situation is not really critical for Parallels Business Automation - Standard, but as a result, the subscription parameters stored in the Parallels Business Automation - Standard database become different from the actual configuration of the customer‟s system created in accordance with this subscription. Customers pay for services they use in accordance with the information stored in their subscriptions. If the actual service provided does not match the subscription, the customer is either billed for the services he/she does not use or uses some additional services for free. A Plesk or Container subscription mismatch can be fixed by one click. To this effect, go to the Account Director - Subscription Manager - Subscriptions, select the subscription with which the customer‟s system is to be synchronized, then choose the General Settings tab from the set of subscription properties, and click the Synchronize (Container, Plesk Client, Plesk Domain - depending on the subscription type) button. The customer‟s system parameters will be automatically brought into correspondence with the subscription parameters. Note: For Virtuozzo for Linux 2.6.2 Containers the automated Container restart is possible in some cases of subscription mismatch. Managing Resold Subscriptions All subscriptions created for resellers and resellers‟ customers can be viewed and managed from Provider Control Center > Account Director > Subscription Manager > Resold Subscriptions. The list of subscriptions displays the following: ID. A subscription numerical identifier assigned automatically or - this setting is available for Provider only - in accordance with the subscription starting ID set manually. Subscription name. The Container or dedicated server hostname or domain name for Plesk subscription, or just domain name for domain-registration subscriptions. Note: Miscellaneous subscriptions provide custom and non-hosting services like additional support etc, so there cannot be any hostnames in this case. Thus, in order not to leave blank cells for miscellaneous subscription types in the Subscription name column the name of hosting plan a subscription is based upon is shown. The link in this column leads not to a hosting plan settings, but to the subscription properties, similarly to the other subscription types. Hosting Plan Type. The type of hosting provided by a hosting plan a subscription is based upon (Dedicated, Virtuozzo Container, Plesk Client, etc.). You can filter the list of subscriptions down to the particular hosting type. Hosting Plan. The name of a hosting plan a subscription is based upon. Account Name. The name of an account owning a subscription.
- 222. 222 Managing Subscriptions Status. Subscription current status. A subscription statuses are changed automatically and depend on the services provisioning: Pending - An Order was paid, appropriate Invoice was generated. Services were not provided in full scale, for certain reasons. You should process an order manually (click the Process Order button on the order details screen) to retry services provisioning. Active - An Order was paid, an Invoice was generated. Ordered services were provided; On Hold - all operations in respect to a subscription are temporarily suspended. A Subscription can be brought into „On Hold‟ status automatically, for example in the case if renewal Order was not paid and in rare cases, if a customer Account was brought into „On Hold‟ state; Graced - A subscription had expired, and a renewal Order was not paid yet. However before a a subscription will be deleted, a customer may be granted with some additional time called grace period (e.g., several days) to pay an order and renew a subscription. The grace period duration can be defined in Credit Terms. A customer or a provider can upgrade a graced subscription to another hosting plan in the same way as for an active subscriptions. Expired - A subscription had expired. However in this case, the grace period can be restarted by Provider. Deleted - all operations in respect to a Subscription are impossible. To delete a subscription, click the Terminate button at Subscription General Settings. Terminating - this status occurs in case the delayed subscription termination (termination period) is configured. Termination period is set in Credit Terms and defines how long the expired subscription or a subscription that have been manually terminated by provider or reseller stays in database. Start Date. The starting day of a subscription period. End Date. The last date of subscription period. Trial. Whether the services included in a subscription are provided for free during the trial period, or not: green tick in this column means that a subscription is trial, red cross - non-trial. The trial period can be set per hosting plan (for all hosting types excluding dedicated hosting and Plesk server in Container). Provider can create the special trial- only hosting plans (on page 160). Similarly to a provider customers‟ subscriptions, resold subscriptions are grouped by tabs into the common list (All Subscriptions), subscriptions in the „Pending‟ status (Pending Subscriptions), subscriptions in the „On Hold‟ status (Subscriptions On Hold), subscriptions in the „Graced‟ and „Expired‟ status (Graced&Expired), and subscription in the „Terminating‟ status (Termination Queue). The number of subscriptions in each list is shown at each tab in the brackets. To view a subscription details or manage it, click on a subscription ID or name. Depending on a subscription type (Container, Plesk, Miscellaneous, etc.), the set of tabs that compose a subscription details, varies. Provider can change a resold subscription configuration only in respect to its general configuration and domain assignment, because resources configuration, system parameters (for Container and Plesk subscriptions), custom attributes are subject to a hosting plan owned by a reseller, and Provider cannot change reseller‟s hosting plans.
- 223. Managing Subscriptions 223 Thus, the following parameters of a resold subscription can be changed: General Settings: View mode: Change Account. Change account into any of provider customer or reseller customer or reseller account. For subscriptions in the „Active‟ status: Put on Hold. Change a subscription status into „On Hold‟. For subscriptions in the „On Hold‟ status: Activate. Change a subscription status into „Active‟. Change Hosting Plan. Change hosting plan into one of the reseller active hosting plans. Change End date. Change subscription end date. If a renewal order is not generated: Generate renewal order - issue a renewal order in the same way as this is done for provider customers‟ subscriptions. If a renewal order is already issued, it is possible to apply payments to an order or process it. For Virtuozzo Container subscription types: Synchronize Container - synchronize a Container parameters with subscription terms. Send Invitation. Initiate sending an e-mail notification about a subscription creation to a subscription administrator. Terminate. Terminate a subscription, which results in changing a subscription status into „Terminating‟ and placing a subscription into a Termination queue tab within resold subscriptions. Click the Edit button and: change a subscription name, adjust the next billing period, set the custom subscription fee (applied only to a hosting plan subscription fees, and not to additional resources or applications purchased), change settings of automated renewal order generation. Domains Select a domain and manage it: Reassign a domain to another subscription. Enable/disable DNS hosting. Edit domain zone. View list of subscriptions that contribute into a domain zone file (also known as DNS Records Suppliers). View default records assigned to a subscription by means of DNS template (specified in a hosting plan a subscription is based on), restore default DNS records from DNS template, enable/disable a DNS Record Supplier for a domain, synchronize a zone file with a DNS Record Supplier. Orders Manage orders placed for a subscription. Pay orders, generate renewal order, adjust renewal orders generation settings, cancel open or pending orders.
- 224. 224 Managing Subscriptions Managing Subscription Attributes If it is needed to add some custom or specific information to a subscription profile, it is possible to do this by configuring editable fields within a subscription settings. Such additional fields are called extended attributes. Extended attributes can be added to subscription using Parallels Business Automation API. For details refer to the Parallels Business Automation SDK. Having been added, extended attribute(s) are grouped within a subscription properties, Account Director > Subscription Manager > Subscription, select subscription, switch to Ext.Attributes tab.
- 225. CHAPTER 15 Managing Payables in Reseller Control Center Payable section of the Billing Director in the Reseller Control Center is designed for management of Reseller‟s financial documents connected with settlements with HSP. As soon as Reseller receives payment for services provided, or orders HSPs services, an Invoice from HSP is automatically issued. The Invoice total sum is calculated in accordance with Reseller‟s partner discount (if any) assigned to a Reseller by HSP. Payable section includes the same items as Receivable. Financial Documents management is similar to Receivable. Within Payable screen you can view the list of all documents or select specific document type: orders, invoices, payments or adjustments. In addition, you can view the balance. Similarly to Receivable, three subsections of Payable section are available within the Navigation tree: Balance; Documents; Statements. In this chapter: Viewing Balance of Reseller Account Payable .................................................. 226 Increasing Reseller Account Balance ................................................................ 226 Managing Financial Documents Issued by HSP ................................................ 227 Viewing Statements Issued by HSP .................................................................. 229 Managing Containers ........................................................................................ 230 Managing Plesk Clients and Domains ............................................................... 250 Support and Administration ............................................................................... 255 Marketing and Affiliate Programs ...................................................................... 271 XML-Based Data Import and Export ................................................................. 276 Resolving Data Conflicts ................................................................................... 277 Integration and Customization Opportunities..................................................... 281 Parallels Business Automation - Standard Internal Licensing ............................ 283 Getting Technical Support................................................................................. 284
- 226. 226 Managing Payables in Reseller Control Center Viewing Balance of Reseller Account Payable All Reseller Account balance statistics in the Reseller Control Center are calculated automatically by the Billing Manager. Payable Balance reflects the current state of Reseller Account. In this case, the positive balance means that a certain overpayment exists in respect to Invoices issued by HSP. Negative balance means that total balance of HSP Invoices exceeds total sum of payments made by Reseller. Zero balance indicates that the total sum of your payments equals the total sum of HSP Invoices. To view Reseller Account balance in the Reseller Control Center click on the Balance link on Payable submenu. Payable-balance screen displays the following: Total balance - Reseller Account balance calculated on the basis of existing financial documents (Invoices, Adjustments, and Payments) generated by HSP and paid by Reseller. Positive value means that total sum of Reseller payments exceeds the total sum of Invoices and Debit Adjustments issued by HSP. Zero balance means that your payments sum equals to the total sum of Invoices and Debit Adjustments issued by HSP. Balance below zero means that the total sum of unpaid Invoices and/or Debit Adjustments issued by HSP exceeds the total sum of payments received from you by HSP. Events. Last and next Statement generation date (statements are generated one time per month). Statement is a detailed reference about account balance and operations during a billing period. Increasing Reseller Account Balance A reseller can increase their account balance by an arbitrary amount. In this case, the amount offered by default equals to the amount a reseller owes to Provider. To increase a reseller account balance: 1 Select Billing Director - Payable - Balance. 2 Click the Make Payment button. 3 On the opened screen select the payment method, enter the payment total. 4 Click the Make Payment button. At this moment the Payment Request is sent to Provider. After a Provider approves a Payment Request, the reseller payment will be accepted and resulted in a new online (if credit card payment method was used) or offline (if bank account payment method was used) payment counted for reseller. After this, such a payment can be applied to Provider invoices.
- 227. Managing Payables in Reseller Control Center 227 Managing Financial Documents Issued by HSP The Documents section within the Billing Manager Payable allows Reseller to view his (or her) Orders and Payments, view Provider Adjustments, and pay Provider Invoices. To view the list of all payables: 1 Click Documents on the Payable submenu. 2 Similarly to receivables, two variants of working with documents are available: you can get the particular document by clicking on its name or ID in the general list, or you can work with particular category of documents (Orders, Invoices, Payments or Adjustments, - click appropriate tab). The list of payables displays the following: ID and Type (click to drill to document properties); The date a document was issued by HSP; Total sum; Balance (unpaid part for Orders, Invoices, and Debit Adjustments, or unused part for Payments and Credit Adjustments); Added by. The name of a person who initiated creation of the given financial document. Let us consider an Invoice, for example. Say, a customer visited your online store, ordered services, and paid for these services. In this case, HSP automatically issues an appropriate Invoice for you (the sum paid by your Customer minus Reseller partner discount (if any). Then, in this column you will see the name of a customer (as it indicated in appropriate Customer Account profile). Managing Orders To view the list of all Orders placed by you, click on the same tab at the top menu. To drill to Order details, (or to pay or cancel an Order), click in its name or ID. Order details are grouped into two sets (click on appropriate tab in the top menu to view): General information (Details) includes the following additional information: Order validity date, subscription name (for server subscriptions), comment (typically, short description of services ordered), the name of customer that placed an Order (click to see details), and itemization of services ordered. For open Orders, here you can pay it online or cancel it manually (i.e., before validity date). Payment History - An Invoice generated in accordance with the given Order. Here you pay this Invoice online (if needed).
- 228. 228 Managing Payables in Reseller Control Center Let us consider online payment. Hosting Service Provider selects and enables an actual online-payment system to be used for settlements between Reseller and HSP. Thus, after clicking the Pay Online button, you will be offered to proceed with online payment (the name of processing center, for example, VeriSign or WorldPay should be displayed as a button title). On the next step, you will be offered either to select a one of your credit cards saved at HSP side (if any) or to enter a new credit card. In the case if a payment was processed successfully, Confirmation screen will be displayed. Paying HSP Invoices As soon as Reseller obtains payments from his (or her) customers for services provided, HSP automatically issues appropriate Invoice (the sum paid by a Reseller‟s customer minus Reseller partner discount, if any). In addition, there is one more case when HSP automatically issues Invoices with nonzero balance for a Reseller. It depends on the order of applying Subscription- changes set by HSP (apply changes immediately or only after payment received). If changes are being applied immediately, then if a Reseller orders a new Container or upgrades existing Subscription, the following actions are performed: Appropriate Order is being created; Services are provided immediately, on credit; In accordance with an Order, and Invoice is being automatically issued. Invoice properties include three tabs: Details. The same info as showed in the general list, but you can drill to Account properties and Subscription details by clicking on their names. In addition the services ordered are itemized. To view the Invoice in printed form (for open Invoices only), click the Show for Printing button. To pay an open Invoice online, click the Pay Online button. The procedure of is similar to Orders (see above in this Section); Paid by. The list of documents (if any) applied to an Invoice. You can drill to the properties of these documents by clicking on ID or name; Notifications. Here you can view the e-mail Invoice notifications sent to you by HSP. Please note that when processing Payables, you also can pay an Order or an Invoice in part. To this effect, you should pay offline (for example by check) and explicitly indicate a document this payment should be applied to. In addition, you can you can allow its automatic applying to Orders or Invoices (to this effect, mention that while entering this Payment a HSP staff member should mark the Auto payment checkbox). In this case, if you order services at HSP, you will be offered to use existing payment(s) with positive balance. In the case if offline payment sum exceeds the total sum of the paid document, the positive balance of your offline payment will be displayed in the common list (Payments tab) as soon as HSP staff member enters this payment. Viewing Payments The list of Payments within Payable section includes all payments (online and offline) applied to Provider Invoices. To view all payments, click on the Payments tab at the top menu. To view detailed info about a Payment, click on its ID. Payment properties include two tabs:
- 229. Managing Payables in Reseller Control Center 229 Details. Here you can see the same info as in the general list. However, you can drill to the detailed info about your staff member that was logged in Parallels Business Automation - Standard when this Payment was added. In addition, you can see, whether this payment was set to „Auto Payment‟ (green tick indicated that yes). Paid Documents. This tab allows viewing the list of documents (Invoices or Orders) the given Payment was applied to by HSP staff member.. In this case, you can drill to properties of each paid document (if any) by clicking on its Name or ID. In this case, you cannot apply payments with nonzero balance (only Provider staff member does). You only can view details and track payments balance. Viewing Adjustments The list of Adjustments within Payable section includes Adjustments to Reseller Account balance made by HSP staff members. Similarly to payments, this is just for your information. Thus, you can track the Adjustments balance. Viewing Statements Issued by HSP A Statement reflects the current balance for your Reseller Account. Statement is generated regularly (and automatically) once a month. To view the list of all Statements generated for Reseller Account, click Statements on the Payable submenu. In this case, Statements‟ details are the same as for Payables.
- 230. CHAPTER 16 Managing Containers This Chapter focuses on Containers (Containers) management including Container creation (and other operations with Containers), and Containers upgrade. To list/manage Containers, go to the Service Director - Virtuozzo Manager - Container. The list of Containers displays the following: ID - Unique numeric identifier, assigned to the Container in Parallels Business Automation - Standard Hostname - Container hostname IP Address - Current Container IP address Node - Hardware Node on which Container is currently hosted. You could change it by using Migrate operation Account - The name of an Account a Container is associated with Trial - Whether a customer can try this Container for free during certain period of time. Trial period is being set during Container creation by your staff member. Green tick in this column indicates that trial period is allowed, red cross - that not. Status Container status. Click the “Refresh” button at the top of the screen to make sure the status displayed up-to-date. All Container statuses are described in details later in this guide. To operate Containers, use controls at the bottom of the screen. In this chapter: Viewing Billing Reports ...................................................................................... 231 Managing Both OS and Application Templates for Containers .......................... 233 Setting Up Both Trial Containers and Containers Backups Creation.................. 247 Keeping Container Root Passwords in Parallels Business Automation - Standard Database 247 Backups Management ....................................................................................... 248
- 231. CHAPTER 17 Viewing Billing Reports This chapter advises how to view and manage billing reports. In this chapter: Accounting Reports ........................................................................................... 232 Taxation Reports ............................................................................................... 233
- 232. 232 Managing Payables in Reseller Control Center Accounting Reports The detailed accounting reports provide the following information: The Revenue Report provides all the revenue information. Revenue per Plan provides the information about revenue per each hosting plan. Revenue per Promotion summarizes revenues per promotion (applied to hosting plans) a provider or a reseller has been got for a selected period of time. Revenue forecast allows generating the revenue forecast for selected period os time on the basis of existing subscriptions. The Collected Cash report provides information about the amount collected. Sign-Up/Go-Away Report presents the rate of new and lost subscriptions for selected period of time. The Aged Account/Receivable report groups all the invoices issued for your customers‟ accounts and sorts these invoices by their age (both non-overdue and overdue). All reports include the Total presentation and Details. The Total tab allows viewing the total revenue report for a particular period of time or for all hosting plans (for Sign- Up/Go-Away report). The Details tab presents revenue report by particular billing documents. Some reports (for example, Revenue per Promotion and Revenue per Plan) include a third tab Revenue per Promotion or Revenue per Plan where you can filter the report down to a particular promotion or hosting plan. To view the revenue summary, go to the Billing Director - Report Manager. The Reports summary screen is roughly divided into two parts: The revenue both for previous and And in the left part you can find current months and total amount links to all the three types of are shown in the right part of the revenue reports mentioned above. screen: Revenue. The total sum of all invoices (both paid and unpaid) minus the total sum of credit adjustments applied to invoices for the given period of time. Cash Collected. The total sum of all payments (both online and offline) received for the given period of time. Non Overdue. The total sum of all unpaid, non-overdue invoices issued for the given period of time. Overdue. The total sum of all overdue invoices issued for the given period of time.
- 233. Managing Payables in Reseller Control Center 233 Taxation Reports You can view the detailed reports on collected taxes amount in Billing Director - Report Manager - Tax Reports. The tax report consists of the three listings of invoices sorted by: taxed documents and two lists of not taxed documents (tax exempted and just not taxed). Managing Both OS and Application Templates for Containers Parallels Business Automation - Standard provides the special applications management tool that simplifies applications provisioning into Containers and applications versioning management. These tools are grouped under the Service Director - Virtuozzo Manager - Applications. In this section: Managing Standard Templates.......................................................................... 233 Managing EZ Templates ................................................................................... 236 Importing Templates from Hardware Nodes ...................................................... 238 Removing Application Template from Hardware Node ...................................... 238 Application Template Properties ........................................................................ 238 OS Templates ................................................................................................... 244 Managing Container Applications Upgrades ...................................................... 244 Creating More Application Templates ................................................................ 247 Managing Standard Templates Standard templates are those introduced in Virtuozzo before EZ templates (see page 236). In this section: Basic Notions .................................................................................................... 234 Application Categories....................................................................................... 235
- 234. 234 Managing Payables in Reseller Control Center Basic Notions This Section includes definitions of the basic notions connected with Applications management in Parallels Business Automation - Standard. In this section: What is a Template ........................................................................................... 235 Base Directory ................................................................................................... 235 Package Set ...................................................................................................... 235 Application......................................................................................................... 235
- 235. Managing Payables in Reseller Control Center 235 What is a Template A Template is a set of packages prepared to be installed inside Container. Usually it is just a set of RPM packages for RedHat-like systems. There are two types of templates in Parallels Business Automation - Standard: OS template is an operating system snapshot taken immediately after installation. Application template is a set of repackaged RPMs optionally accompanied with configuration scripts In respect to templates management (both Application Templates and OS templates), Parallels Business Automation - Standard interface follows actual templates location. For better understanding, let us consider how templates are stored on Management Node and Hardware Nodes. All templates are stored on Management Node in template root directory /vz/template. This directory is being automatically created during the first installation of template (OS template or Application template - it does not matter). On Hardware Nodes, all templates are stored in the same way (/vz/template is root template directory). The only difference is that the special /vz partition is created on Hardware Nodes. Base Directory Base directory groups templates of the same applications with different original versions or different template versions. For example, if you click the Applications link at the Application Director dashboard, you will see the list of Application groups, i.e., base directories. Each base directory may include several versions of the same Application - package sets. Note: The Application Director allows managing Applications both by groups (base directories) and versions (separate package sets). Package Set A package set is a separate version of an Application. Application An application is a particular software product included in a package set. Application Categories
- 236. 236 Managing Payables in Reseller Control Center For better manageability, Applications can be grouped into Categories. Three default Application categories exist: Applications, Access tools, and Control Panels. You can create as much additional Application Categories as you consider convenient. To create a new Application Category, select Service Director - Virtuozzo Manager - Setup - Application Categories tab. Then click the New Category button. Enter the Category name, type the description. Click the Save button to add a new Application category. In order to group Applications into Categories, you need to get back to an Application details (namely, General Settings). Managing EZ Templates This chapter familiarizes you with EZ templates developed on the basis of Virtuozzo standard templates and providing significant technology enhancements over their counterpart. In this section: EZ Templates Overview .................................................................................... 237 EZ Templates Repository .................................................................................. 237
- 237. Managing Payables in Reseller Control Center 237 EZ Templates Overview In respect of their functionality and behaviour, EZ templates are identical to Virtuozzo standard templates, i.e. they also provide a way of sharing resources among lots of Containers by making use of Virtuozzo File System (VZFS) and thus enabling huge savings in terms of disk space and memory. However, EZ templates demonstrate a number of distinctive features as compared to their counterpart: Important: The EZ templates technology allows you to use the original OS vendor‟s packages and to receive the updated RPM packages from a central repository right after their release without having to wait until they are packaged into templates by Parallels and delivered to you. EZ templates do not carry all the necessary package files inside themselves. They contain only information about what packages should be installed on the Hardware Node to make the templates fully operational and from what network repository these packages should be downloaded. The dependencies of RPM packages included in an EZ template are automatically resolved during the packages installation on the Hardware Node. So, if the specified RPMs require other packages to be installed, these packages are also downloaded from the repository and installed on the Node. In case an RPM package has requirements that conflict with existing software on the Node or any dependencies for the package being installed cannot be satisfied, the RPM installation process fails without making any changes to the system. Note: You can find more information on the EZ templates in the Virtuozzo User‟s Guide Version 3.0. EZ Templates Repository One of the basic concepts in the EZ template technology is the concept of „repository‟ where RPM packages for the given EZ template are stored. A repository is a prepared directory or web site containing software packages and index files for Linux operating systems and/or any of their applications. An example of such a repository is the repository located at the http://mirrors.usc.edu/pub/linux/distributions/fedora/ web site and storing RPM packages for the Fedora Core releases. Using repositories gives you the following advantages: RPM packages included in the given EZ template do not contain versions, but only names (e.g. bash, crontabs). So, you always update any RPM package included in the EZ template to its latest version available in the repository. As a result of the fact that a list of RPM packages does not provide their versions, EZ templates do not have versions either (e.g. redhat-as4-x86). Thus, you install any EZ template on the Hardware Node only once and, after that, use the installed template to update the RPM packages inside any Container where it is applied.
- 238. 238 Managing Payables in Reseller Control Center Importing Templates from Hardware Nodes After you have installed the templates to a Hardware Node, you need to register these templates in the Parallels Business Automation - Standard database to be able to use the templates in the Hosting Plans. Importing templates from Hardware Nodes to the Parallels Business Automation - Standard database is a quick and easy way of templates installation to the HSPC Management Node from a Hardware Node you have so far managed. To register a template on a Management Node: 1 Go to Service Director - Virtuozzo Manager - Nodes - <Node>. 2 Click OS Templates or Applications. The list of all OS templates installed on the Hardware Node appears on the screen. 3 Click on the Register OS Templates From Node or Register Applications From Node button and confirm your action on the dialogue screen. 4 Click Refresh at the top of the page to update the system information. Now you will be able to create Hosting Plans that use this OS template for Container creation with provisioning this Container on the Hardware Node you have registered the OS template for. Note: You can only import OS templates for Virtuozzo for Windows versions no older than the 3.5 release. You can also use the Register OS Templates/Applications From Node operation to update the actual status of all the templates installed on a Management Node. Important: You can import to the Management Node the Virtuozzo for Windows templates only in the .efd format. Removing Application Template from Hardware Node If you want to uninstall an Application, you can get an error message, because some Containers may use this Application at this moment. However, you can force the uninstall. Please, be attentive, in this case you may get some problems with your Containers. Application Template Properties Two types of Applications can be managed in Parallels Business Automation - Standard as templates: Commercial applications. Applications packaged by Parallels. Parallels can have an agreement with the ISV to distribute the application and in this case customers will obtain the license from Parallels. If Parallels does not have an agreement with ISV - application could be installed into Container, but customers should contact the ISV to obtain the license; Open source applications packaged and supported by Parallels. To provision these applications into the customer‟s Containers, HSPs should obtain the license for support of the open source applications from Parallels.
- 239. Managing Payables in Reseller Control Center 239 Click Service Director - Virtuozzo Manager - Applications to view the list of all applications available (i.e., uploaded or installed). The list displayed includes not the Applications themselves, but BaseNames - general names of templates‟ groups that may include several versions of the same Application. To install a new Application (or an Application upgrade), click the Install Application button and follow the wizard. Click on the Application group name to view the list of Application versions available. Application group details include the following tabs: Package Sets, Containers, Hardware Nodes, Upgrade Containers, and Upgrade Hosting Plans. We describe the designation of each tab in details. In this section: Application Package Sets (Versions) ................................................................. 240 Application Template General Settings.............................................................. 240 Application Template License Info ..................................................................... 242 Applications Provisioning Inside Containers ...................................................... 242 Upgrading Containers ....................................................................................... 242 Synchronizing Templates With Hardware Nodes ............................................... 242 Upgrading Hosting Plans ................................................................................... 243 Applications Included in Application Template ................................................... 244
- 240. 240 Managing Payables in Reseller Control Center Application Package Sets (Versions) The Package Sets tab allows you to operate with particular version of Application (let us refer to it as to a package set) including installation and upgrading Containers and Hosting Plans. The common list of package sets includes the following information about each version of selected Application: ID and name (in this case, this is the actual name of an Application); Version - the version of Application template; Is this Application available for installing inside Containers (green tick in Enabled column) or not (red cross); Status. An Application may have the following statuses: Uploaded - the first step of installation was passed. Parallels Business Automation - Standard system examined the Application template and stores the Application template properties in the database; Scheduled - an Application was scheduled for installation (i.e. the installation process was placed in the queue); Installing - Installation is in process; Installed - Application installed. Caution: In the case if you uploaded the Application template from your Management Node, and this template remains in Uploaded state, do not delete the RPMs. Otherwise, it will be impossible to install a template later. In order to install another version of the selected Application, click on Install Package Set button and follow the wizard. To view detailed information click on Application template ID or name. Application Template General Settings General Settings - include Application template version, package name (RPM package name without suffices), current status (see description of this attribute above), enabled or not (see description of this attribute above), information about compatible OS templates (Operating Systems on those this Application works), disk space required (for different file systems), and description. The General Settings screen displays the following: Version. The application template version. Note that version number is not available for EZ templates and thus a zeros are shown. Package. The name of the package set the application template is included. Status: Registered. A template RPM is absent on a Management Node, but this template configuration file exists in Parallels Business Automation - Standard database.
- 241. Managing Payables in Reseller Control Center 241 Note: A template in a Registered state cannot be synchronized with other Hardware Nodes since a template RPM is missing and a template cannot be installed. To make a template installation on Hardware Node(s) possible, a template RPM must be installed on a Management Node first. Then a template status becomes Installed and its distribution on Hardware Nodes becomes possible. Installed. Both a template configuration file and a template RPM exist on a Management Node. A template can be distributed onto any of registered Hardware Nodes. Synchronized. A template configuration file and a template RPM exist on a Hardware Node. A template RPM is unpacked, i.e., a template is installed on a Hardware Node. Note: If a template was installed on a Hardware Node manually, then Management Node knows nothing about this and keeps a template status as not synchronized. To let the Management Node know about an actual template status, go to the Service Director - Virtuozzo Manager - Nodes, and select the Hardware Node. Click on Applications or OS templates tab. Check the box next to a template name and click the Update Synchronization State button. Enabled. Green tick - the template is enabled, i.e. allowed for installation into Containers and can be included in hosting plans. Red cross - the template is disabled. Force jump option when upgrading to this template. This is the Virtuozzo option used to skip application previous versions (if any) when upgrading an application to a given version. For example, you want to upgrade an application to a newer version. But the version you want to upgrade to is not the next in respect to a current one, i.e., some other versions of this application were released (and are available) before the newest version. Probably it is better to install previous upgrades and then upgrade an application to the newest version, but if you are sure that it is safe to install the latest upgrade, you can enable the jump option for this application. Compatible OS templates. The list of OSs the application is compatible with. You can edit this list. Disk space usage. Disk space used by the application for different file systems. Descriptions. Application description Finally, the General Settings tab allows deleting (uninstalling) the package set (The Delete button at the bottom of the screen). Please, note that in this case the package set will be deleted from the Management Node (and, consequently, from all Hardware Nodes this package set was synchronized with). Note: If you intend to uninstall an Application, you can get an error message, because some Containers may use this Application at this moment. However, you can force the uninstall. Please, be attentive, in this case you may get some problems with your Containers.
- 242. 242 Managing Payables in Reseller Control Center Application Template License Info The License Info tab provides the information about Application vendor (full contact info) and License type (commercial or open source). The text shown is taken from the application template configuration file. The screen displays the following: Type. The license type: commercial, GNU, etc. Vendor. The company that sells the application. Website. Application vendor website URL. Summary. License short description. Description. License Agreement text (if any). You can click the Edit button and change License Info. Applications Provisioning Inside Containers The Containers tab under the application properties allows viewing the list of Containers with at least one version of particular Application installed. You can view Container properties (by clicking on its ID or hostname) and perform all operations under Container as described in this guide. Thus, if you click on Container ID or hostname, you will be automatically redirected to Container details, Applications tab. Here you can also install new Applications inside Container or uninstall existing Applications. Upgrading Containers Hosting Plans upgrade options for a package are the same as for single package set. However, Container sample, i.e., the list of Containers displayed in popup window described earlier in this guide (on page 240) is different. In this case, you will be offered to select Containers with at least one package set from the available ones being installed. Again, you can select a particular package set to be installed in Containers selected for upgrade (special drop-down menu provided). Synchronizing Templates With Hardware Nodes The Hardware Nodes tab under on the application properties page allows viewing the list of all Hardware Nodes an Application is synchronized with. If at least one version of a particular Application is not synchronized with a Hardware Node, the red cross will be displayed in Synchronized column. To synchronize a package set (i.e., synchronize missing package sets) with Hardware Node, check the box next to a Hardware Node name and click the Synchronize button. Important: You can upload to the Management Node the Virtuozzo for Windows templates only in the .efd format.
- 243. Managing Payables in Reseller Control Center 243 To create Containers, OS templates and Applications templates must be installed on a Virtuozzo node that hosts Containers. Templates installation is called synchronization. Templates are distributed on Hardware Nodes as RPM packages, unpacked, and installed. To register a template on a Hardware Node: 1 Go to Service Director - Virtuozzo Manager - Nodes - <Node>. 2 Click OS Templates/Applications. The list of all OS/applications templates installed on the Hardware Node appears on the screen. 3 Click the Synchronize button. 4 Click Refresh at the top of the page to update the system information. Note: You can only synchronize OS templates for Parallels Virtuozzo Containers for Windows versions no older than the 3.5 release. A template status in the templates list table tells about a template availability and existence on a Hardware Node: Registered. A template RPM is absent on a Management Node, but this template configuration file exists in Parallels Business Automation - Standard database. Note: A template in a Registered state cannot be synchronized with other Hardware Nodes since a template RPM is missing and a template cannot be installed. To make a template installation on Hardware Node(s) possible, a template RPM must be installed on a Management Node first. Then a template status becomes Installed and its distribution on Hardware Nodes becomes possible. Installed. Both a template configuration file and a template RPM exist on a Management Node. A template can be distributed onto any of registered Hardware Nodes. Synchronized. A template configuration file and a template RPM exist on a Hardware Node. A template RPM is unpacked, i.e., a template is installed on a Hardware Node. Note: If a template was installed on a Hardware Node manually, then Management Node knows nothing about this and keeps a template status as not synchronized. To let the Management Node know about an actual template status, go to the Service Director - Virtuozzo Manager - Nodes, and select the Hardware Node. Click on Applications ot OS templates tab. Check the box next to a template name and click the Update Synchronization State button. Upgrading Hosting Plans Hosting Plans tab provides the information about Hosting Plans that use the application version. You can view and edit the Hosting Plan properties by clicking on the plan name. In this case you are redirected to the Billing Director - Product Manager. Here you can add new applications and view all the applications installed. Upgrade options for a Hosting Plan are the same as for a single package set.
- 244. 244 Managing Payables in Reseller Control Center However, Hosting Plans sample, i.e., the list of Hosting Plans displayed in popup window for selection, is different. In this case, you will be offered to select Hosting Plan(s) that include at least one package set from available ones. Again, you can select a particular package set to be included in Hosting Plan(s) selected for upgrade (special drop-down menu provided). To add a new (not upgrade) Application to a Hosting Plan, please go to the Billing Director - Product Manager - Hosting Plans. Applications Included in Application Template The applications included in the Application template are shown under the Applications tab. OS Templates To view the list of all OS templates available, select Service Director - Virtuozzo Manager - OS Templates. The common list of OS templates (package sets) includes the same information about each OS template as for Applications package sets (on page 238). In order to view the list of package sets available, click on OS template ID or name. Package sets management and upgrade options are the same as for Application templates. Managing Container Applications Upgrades Container applications are managed and billed by package sets. A package set includes all versions of a particular application (i.e., the set of application templates). This means that if an application is included in a hosting plan, then absolutely all versions of this application a HSP can offer are available for customer who subscribes for a hosting plan, without the need for a customer to pay any additional fee for a new version of an application since all versions are included in the setup and recurring fee set for an application package set. So, after an application package set is purchased, all further actions within a package set (upgrades or downgrades) are not billed. Customers can also downgrade applications to earlier versions, and this does not result in any special chargebacks or fees. When a new version of one or another application appears, this is registered as an Parallels Business Automation - Standard system event tracked by the Event Manager. If an e-mail notification action is attached to this event, an e-mail notification is automatically sent to all customers subscribed for the corresponding package set. Customers can select whether to install a new version or not.
- 245. Managing Payables in Reseller Control Center 245 Note: You can allow customers to disable or enable e-mail notifications for particular events. If notifications management is allowed for some event, a customer can see the Notification Settings icon in the My Account zone of the Control Panel. A customer can click on this icon, get the list of events allowed and check or clear box(es) next to event names to receive e-mail notifications for an event or not. To allow a customer to subscribe or unsubscribe for e-mail notifications on a particular events, go to the Configuration Director - Event Manager - Events, select an event, on an event settings menu click the General Settings tab and check the Customer can control receiving notification for this event box. You can also edit the set of events a customer receives notifications on per account basis. In this section: Upgrading Templates in Containers .................................................................. 246
- 246. 246 Managing Payables in Reseller Control Center Upgrading Templates in Containers To upgrade a application/OS template: 1 Select Service Director - Virtuozzo Manager Containers. Choose a Container, click on it and on the opened screen select the Applications tab. On the opened screen there is a list of installed application templates. Please note that templates versions are specified only for non-EZ templates (see page 233). EZ templates versions are not passed to Parallels Business Automation - Standard and thus, the Version field is filled with zeros for this type of templates. 2 Click the Upgrade Applications button above the templates list. Note: No Upgrade Applications button on the Applications screen means that no upgrades are available. The set of upgrade options at the screen differs depending on the type of the template: For non-EZ templates. Choose the template(s) you wish to upgrade, select the target version in the New version drop-down menu. The template current version is provided under the Current version heading. To ignore any dependencies for the upgrade installation, check the Force upgrade box. To suspend upgrade in case a new version is not compatible with the existing applications clear this box. Jump over several upgrades instead of adding them sequentially. This is the Virtuozzo option force jump used to skip application previous versions (if any) when upgrading an application to a given version. For example, you want to upgrade an application to a newer version. But the version you want to upgrade to is not the next in respect to a current one, i.e., some other versions of this application were released (and are available) before the newest version. Probably it is better to install previous upgrades and then upgrade an application to the newest version, but if you are sure that it is safe to install the latest upgrade, you can enable the jump option for this application. To start upgrade, click the Upgrade button. For EZ templates. Check the boxes next to the names of templates you wish to upgrade and click the Test Upgrade button under the template properties to check for available upgrades. After the check is complete, you will see a message telling you about the possible upgrades. The Force upgrade option works in the same way as for non-EZ templates (see above). Use packages cached locally on Hardware Node. Check this box to install upgrade from the RPMs repository located on a Hardware Node that hosts the Container. Press Upgrade to initiate the upgrade operation.
- 247. Managing Payables in Reseller Control Center 247 You can start upgrading to the latest versions straight away, without prior testing. In this case the system will check for newer RPM packages in the repository and upgrade to them if there are any. If there are no newer versions, the upgrade will not take place. You can also effect the upgrade on the template properties page. To do this click on the template you wish to upgrade in the templates list, on the opened screen press Test Upgrade and if there are available upgrades click on Upgrade. Note: It is recommended that you do mass upgrade on the Applications page rather than an independent update for a separate template as the system is in this case less prompt to errors and besides you are able to upgrade your OS template among other templates. Creating More Application Templates Parallels Business Automation - Standard is shipped with several OS templates and a number of Application templates that can be installed using Application Director. However, if you need more Applications to be available for installation inside Containers, or an update needed to already installed Application template, you can use special command-line tool (vzpkgcreat utility) to create the needed templates or template-upgrades. For detailed instructions on templates creation, please refer to the appropriate document (“Creating Application Templates” guide) available together with the other Parallels Business Automation - Standard documentation at the Documentation screen within your Provider Control Center. Setting Up Both Trial Containers and Containers Backups Creation To improve the efficiency and reliability of Parallels Business Automation - Standard, you can create the trial Containers for your customers and create Containers backups. You can set up the conditions both the trial Containers and backup settings on per Hardware Node basis. To this effect, go to the Service Director - Virtuozzo Manager - Setup - Trial Container Setup tab. Note: You can create backups both for Containers on Parallels Virtuozzo Containers for Linux and Windows platforms. Backups can be stored either on the remote server or on a server that hosts a Container. Keeping Container Root Passwords in Parallels Business Automation - Standard Database
- 248. 248 Managing Payables in Reseller Control Center For technical support purposes, Parallels Business Automation - Standard provides a special option that allows storing Container root passwords internally in Parallels Business Automation - Standard database. If this option is enabled, Containers root passwords are not removed after a Container creation, but remain available for Provider. If a Container password is stored in Parallels Business Automation - Standard database, provider if needed, can get it directly from the Parallels Business Automation - Standard database using command line tools or include Container root passwords in e-mail notifications using a special placeholder. To store (or do not store) Container root passwords, go to the Service Director - Virtuozzo Manager - Setup and select the General Settings tab. Then click Edit and check or clear the Keep Container passwords in the database box to store or do not store Container root passwords respectively. Save the changes. Note: By default, Containers root passwords are not stored in Parallels Business Automation - Standard database. Backups Management To view the list of all Container backups (or manage backups): Select Service Director - Virtuozzo Manager - Backups. The list of backups displays the following: Backup Container ID and Hostname; Backup creation date; Location (Hardware Node name); Size; Backed up Container current status. You can view the detailed information about backed up Container by clicking of its ID or hostname. From interface standpoint, Container Backups management is rather similar to Container management. Different operations under Container backups can be performed using the Action Bar at the bottom of the screen.
- 249. Managing Payables in Reseller Control Center 249 The Action Bar includes controls for Container backups management. You can remove, restore, refresh (replace old backup by the new one), or move backups from one Hardware Node to another. In order to perform an operation under backup, you should select it (check the checkbox opposite backup ID) and click the appropriate button at the Action Bar. In the case if you intend to move backup to another Hardware Node, you should select a Backup, and then select the target Rack and/or Hardware Node from pull-down menus and after this, click the Move button. Note: You can perform group operations by selecting several backups. Backups management on per-Container basis is possible by viewing Container details (via Backups tab).
- 250. CHAPTER 18 Managing Plesk Clients and Domains Plesk is comprehensive Virtual or Physical Webserver management software formally known as Plesk Server Administrator (PSA). For more information about Plesk, please see on the Web (http://www.parallels.com/en/products/plesk). Parallels Business Automation - Standard allows: Establishing connection with Plesk boxes by means of the simple registration of Plesk Hardware Node in the Parallels Business Automation - Standard. Creating and selling Plesk hosting plans (on page 129). Accepting and processing orders on Plesk services using the Parallels Business Automation - Standard billing. Creating Plesk domains and Plesk Clients manually, from the Control Center on the basis of existing Plesk Domain or Plesk Client hosting Plans. Provisioning Plesk services on Plesk servers. Managing Plesk Applications vault. Parallels Business Automation - Standard automatically fetches the information about Plesk applications on all registered Plesk nodes and Provider can manually add new applications and register both new applications and existing ones in Parallels Business Automation - Standard, which allows selling these applications in the frame of Plesk domain hosting plans. Moving all Plesk domains existing on a Plesk node to another IP address by reassigning a Plesk node IP address. Connection to Plesk nodes is established via the special agent software - Plesk Agent. Thus, before registering the Plesk node in Parallels Business Automation - Standard, it is necessary to install the Plesk Agent to a Plesk node. And when you register a Plesk node in Parallels Business Automation - Standard, you need to install the Plesk agent to the Plesk Node and after this, go to the Infrastructure Manager and specify the IP address of the Plesk node you are registering and the Plesk node administrator‟s password. Customers that have subscribed on Plesk hosting at your shop get the Parallels Business Automation - Standard Control Panel to manage their domains, but with the Plesk functionality and real access to the Plesk server. Customers subscriptions can be managed from the Control Center using the Parallels Business Automation - Standard billing (renewal settings, paying orders, putting subscription on hold, notifications, etc.).
- 251. Managing Payables in Reseller Control Center 251 Note: Parallels Business Automation - Standard and Plesk use different name servers. Plesk domains purchased in Parallels Business Automation - Standard store are managed by Parallels Business Automation - Standard DNS servers, while DNS files are created and stored on Plesk DNS server according to Plesk internal DNS templates. Certain DNS records are initially created and stored on the Parallels Business Automation - Standard DNS server, according to the DNS template specified for the corresponding Parallels Business Automation - Standard hosting plan. Changes to domain zone files in the Plesk panel are partly applied to the DNS files stored on Parallels Business Automation - Standard DNS server. DNS files created on Plesk and Parallels Business Automation - Standard DNS files get automatically synchronized, except for SOA, PTR, and NS records, which are stored on Parallels Business Automation - Standard name server and are not modified. You can set up the conditions for Plesk Domains in Service Director - Plesk Manager - Setup. In this chapter: Plesk Applications Vault Management............................................................... 252
- 252. 252 Managing Payables in Reseller Control Center Plesk Applications Vault Management Application vault is the location at Plesk server where you store all site application packages that can be easily deployed at any domain hosted on the server. The Plesk - Parallels Business Automation - Standard interface (Plesk agent) automatically fetches the information about all site applications available at all Plesk servers registered in Parallels Business Automation - Standard. The information about available applications is updated periodically by Plesk agent. Provider can make a Plesk application available for selling in the frame of Plesk hosting plans and set both the setup and recurring fees for an application. The scheme of Plesk Applications management in Parallels Business Automation - Standard is the following: Plesk agent gets the names of site applications from all Plesk nodes registered in Parallels Business Automation - Standard and shows these applications‟ names in a single list under Service Director - Plesk Manager - Applications. The list of applications displays the following: ID. An application numeric identifier assigned in database. Name. An application SHort name. Description. An application short description. Instances. How many running application instances is by now at all Plesk nodes. If you click on an application name, you‟ll see an application details screen, and then, you can select the Nodes tab to view the list of Plesk nodes an application is installed and see how many application instances is now at each Plesk node. This information is automatically fetched from Plesk nodes approximately once in hour. In this case no applications are moved to Parallels Business Automation - Standard Management Node, the applications only become visible in Parallels Business Automation - Standard by their names. All applications stay at Plesk server, thus Applications vault management tools provided in Parallels Business Automation - Standard just allow setting up the automated applications provisioning in the frame of Parallels Business Automation - Standard hosting plans. Applications are recognized by their names, thus it is very important to make sure that all applications are registered in Parallels Business Automation - Standard by the same names as at Plesk server. Provider can: Add a description to any of existing applications. Make an application available for selling in the frame of Plesk client or Plesk domain hosting plans, i.e., register an application in Parallels Business Automation - Standard. View the Plesk nodes an application is installed. This information is provided by Plesk agent.
- 253. Managing Payables in Reseller Control Center 253 Manually add an application and make it available for selling in the frame of hosting plans. Please note that Plesk agent does not check whether the application name is correct. If you make a typo in application name and as a result its name will become different from the name on Plesk server, it will be not possible to provide this applications for customers, because Parallels Business Automation - Standard will not find such an application on Plesk server. Thus, if you manually register an application, make sure that you enter the correct name. Plesk agent will later automatically update an application status and get the information about Plesk nodes an application is installed. Manual registration of applications is useful if, for example, you have already started an application installation on Plesk server and want to add and register this application in Parallels Business Automation - Standard without waiting for automated Plesk agent update. To view the names of applications automatically collected by Plesk agent from registered Plesk nodes: 1 Select Applications under the Plesk Manager. The list of registered applications appears. Registered applications are applications available for sale in the frame of hosting plans. 2 Click the Get Site Applications from Plesk Nodes button. The list of all applications available on all registered Plesk nodes appears. The list displays the following: Name. An application name as it is registered at Plesk server. Description. An application short description. Installed. Green tick means that an application is registered in Parallels Business Automation - Standard and can be sold in the frame of a hosting plan. Red cross means that an application is available at one of Plesk servers, but is not available for sale, i.e., this application will be not shown in the list of applications during Plesk domain or client hosting plan creation or under the Applications tab within a hosting plan properties. To make an application available for Plesk domain or client hosting plans: To register applications from the set of automatically recognized by Plesk agent and thus, surely existing on at least one of the Plesk nodes registered in Parallels Business Automation - Standard: To register particular applications, check the box next to an application name and click the Register Selected button. To register absolutely all applications, without respect to any selections, click the Register All button. To manually add an application, click Applications on the left menu. As the list of registered applications appear, click the Add New Plesk Site Application button: Into the Name field, enter the application name (make sure that the application name you enter is exactly the same as at Plesk node). Add a free-form description of this application into the Description field. Click the Save button. To see on what Plesk nodes an application is actually installed: 1 Select Applications under the Plesk Manager. The list of registered applications appear.
- 254. 254 Managing Payables in Reseller Control Center 2 Click on the name of application you want to see the nodes for. 3 As the selected application details appear on the screen, select the Nodes tab. The list of all Plesk nodes registered in Parallels Business Automation - Standard appears. The application availability is shown in the Installed column. Green tick next to a node name in the Installed column means that the application is installed on a node. Red cross means that an application is not installed on a node. Note: Applications availability on the Plesk nodes is detected automatically by Plesk agent polling.
- 255. CHAPTER 19 Support and Administration This chapter describes the tools that are used to provide support and administration, that is Trouble ticket system, Problem Viewer, Screens Viewer, Mass Mailer, as well as settings and operations related to these tools. In this chapter: Using the Problem Viewer ................................................................................. 256 Trouble Ticket System ....................................................................................... 256 Using the Screens Viewer ................................................................................. 259 Using the Mass Mailer ....................................................................................... 259 Managing Parallels Business Automation - Standard Objects Description Templates 259 Managing Events............................................................................................... 260 Service Logging In to Resellers and Customers Tools....................................... 262 Using the Maintenance Mode for your Hardware Nodes.................................... 262 Managing the User Password Strength ............................................................. 262 Updating Parallels Business Automation - Standard.......................................... 262 Checking Parallels Business Automation - Standard Database Integrity ........... 266 Setting the Statistics Storage Period ................................................................. 267 Tasks Management ........................................................................................... 268 Viewing Log Files .............................................................................................. 269
- 256. 256 Managing Payables in Reseller Control Center Using the Problem Viewer The Problem Viewer provides the maximum of a problem details that is possible without access to the Parallels Business Automation - Standard code. To this effect, you need to get the problem ID and submit it to the Problem viewer. To use the Problem Viewer, select Configuration Director - Logging and Errors - Problem Viewer. Trouble Ticket System Parallels Business Automation - Standard provides an integrated trouble ticketing system that allows reporting and answering customers‟ problems directly through the interface and by e-mail. If you do not want to use the built-in trouble ticket system or you need some additional helpdesk features not supported by the built-in system, you can use one of the external helpdesks integrated with Parallels Business Automation - Standard: Cerberus Helpdesk or Kayako SupportSuite. The API provided (see the Parallels Business Automation - Standard SDK for details) allows you to integrate more external helpdesks. It is possible to switch between the Parallels Business Automation - Standard trouble ticket system to an external helpdesk system on-the-fly in the Account Director - Support Manager - Setup - General tab. In this section: Configuring Parallels Business Automation - Standard Trouble Ticket System .. 257
- 257. Managing Payables in Reseller Control Center 257 Configuring Parallels Business Automation - Standard Trouble Ticket System The Provider Control Center allows processing problem reports that came from provider‟s customers, posting tickets for their customers accounts, and viewing trouble tickets posted by customers of your resellers. The Reseller Control Center allows resellers to process trouble tickets posted by their customers and post trouble tickets to their provider. Parallels Business Automation - Standard allows using either the built-in Ticket System or an external HelpDesk. How It Works Provider or reseller can configure the Trouble Ticket System in such a way that customers are able to submit trouble tickets both directly from the Control Panel web- based interface and send problem reports via e-mail. E-mail reports are automatically converted into corresponding trouble tickets. Trouble tickets are managed and grouped by the following attributes: One attribute defined by a customer. This is the problem subject or category. Two attributes defined by provider: Priority of problem (e.g., normal, high, etc.). Note that when you enable the Trouble Ticket System, you should select the default priority that will be assigned to all new tickets posted by customers. Later you can view the ticket details and assign another priority to a ticket. Queue to place a problem report (e.g., new, on hold, etc.). Similarly to priorities, you should select the default queue to place all new tickets posted by customers. Later you can move a ticket to another queue. Assigning Problem Reports Watchers After a problem report is posted, provider or reseller can assign a trouble ticket to one of their staff members and set one or more problem watchers from their staff members. In case a ticket status changes, a watcher receives an e-mail notification sent to a staff member contact e-mail specified in his/her Parallels Business Automation - Standard user profile. In addition, it is possible to specify several internal e-mail addresses to send watcher notifications. Trouble Ticket System Initial Setup To use the Trouble Ticket System, you should make some initial settings, which are necessary for the Trouble Ticket System to work, namely: Create and enable one or more ticket categories (roughly pre-defined problem subjects) . Customers will select one or another category when placing a problem report from the Control Panel. Thus, it‟s better to have at least six categories, one per each zone of the Control Panel: for example: system, site, account/billing, etc. Create and enable at least one ticket priority. Create and enable at least one ticket queue.
- 258. 258 Managing Payables in Reseller Control Center To set up the Trouble Ticket System, please go to the Account Director - Support Manager - Setup. The Trouble Ticket System settings are grouped under several tabs: General. Here you can enable or disable the Trouble Ticket System or allow adding new tickets for your customers. In addition, you can switch the Trouble Ticket System to an external Helpdesk. Queues. Click to add a queue or reassign the default queue. Categories. Click to add a category or enable/disable the existing ones. Priorities. Click to add a priority or reassign the default priority. Mail Gates. Click to configure one or more mail addresses to receive trouble tickets via e-mail. Configuring E-Mail Notifications About Rejected E-Mail Problem Reports A problem report posted via e-mail can be rejected if: A Mail Gate a report was addressed to appears to be disabled by the moment a report was received. A Mail Gate is active, but The Trouble Ticket System is disabled globally. A Mail Gate is active and the Trouble Ticket System is enabled, but set to disallow posting new problem reports by customers. The corresponding events for all the three cases were added. You can go to the Configuration Director - Event Manager and configure e-mail notifications for each event. In this section: Managing Trouble Tickets ................................................................................. 258 Managing Trouble Tickets To view or process the trouble tickets, go to the Select Account Director - Support Manager - Trouble Tickets. In Provider Control Center trouble tickets are grouped into two lists, under two tabs: To Provider. This is the list of problem reports posted by provider‟s customers and resellers. Provider can move these tickets between queues, change and categories and priorities, add comment (both visible or invisible for customer), close or reopen tickets, and reassign trouble tickets to staff members. To Resellers. This is the list of problem reports posted by customers of resellers. Provider can just view these tickets and supervise the tickets processing. In Reseller Control Center trouble tickets are also grouped into two lists, under two tabs: From Customers. The list of trouble tickets posted by reseller customers. Reseller can process these tickets in the same way as provider manages trouble tickets posted by his customers. To Provider. This is the list of trouble tickets posted by reseller to provider. Reseller can add and process tickets in the same way as customers from the Control Panel.
- 259. Managing Payables in Reseller Control Center 259 Using the Screens Viewer Each of the Parallels Business Automation - Standard screens has the unique numerical identifier that consists of five numbers divided with point. The screen ID is shown at the upper-right of each screen. Your customers may specify the screen ID in their problem reports (e.g., “... the problem occurred in System zone, mail management, screen ID is the following...”) . And you can just submit the screen ID to your Screens Viewer and get the path to the needed screen. This helps you to locate the problem and solve it more quickly. To locate a screen, go to the Configuration Director - Logging and Errors - Screens Viewer. Using the Mass Mailer Using the Mass Mailer you can send the massive e-mail notifications to your resellers and customers. Note: If needed, you can re-send the mass mail. To send a mass mail, go to the Marketing Director - Announcement Manager - Mass Mailer. Managing Parallels Business Automation - Standard Objects Description Templates A description template is a piece of text describing one of Parallels Business Automation - Standard objects (a financial document like an order or an invoice, an account, or a subscription) in HTML or text format composed from plain text and placeholders. Placeholders are special expressions, which, having been inserted in the text, are replaced with the actual values when a template is used for an actual object description. A description template can be inserted into e-mail notifications in the same way as the other placeholders. In addition, a description template is used for printer-friendly formatting of documents (shown after clicking the Show for Printing button below a document details) and generating an object description in PDF format to be attached to an e-mail notification, so a customer could have a description well formatted for printing. That is why description templates in Parallels Business Automation - Standard are called Print Forms.
- 260. 260 Managing Payables in Reseller Control Center The print form benefit and its main difference from an ordinary placeholder is that you can edit it, change formatting, and create as many print forms as you need. Print forms are automatically fetched by the Event Manager for the corresponding e-mail notifications. For example, you have created the print form for an invoice description. Then, when you go to Event Manager, select some event that involves an invoice and try to attach an e-mail notification as an action to this event, you will see that the placeholder for the corresponding print form is shown in the list of placeholders (so you can paste it into a message body) and this print form can be attached to an e-mail notification as a PDF file. To facilitate creation of new print forms and give you a place to start, the default set of print forms describing the basic financial documents is provided. The default print forms can be edited, but cannot be deleted since they are used by default to generate the printer-friendly formatting of financial documents like orders, invoices, adjustments, etc. To create a print form or manage the existing ones, go to the Configuration Director - Miscellaneous Settings - Print Forms. Managing Events Parallels Business Automation - Standard provides an opportunity of tracking particular events that happen within the system and configure actions to be performed in connection with each event including both e-mail and Instant Messaging (SMS) notifications and other actions (including scripts execution). The tools for events management are grouped under the Configuration Director - Event Manager. The Event Manager submenu provides the following options: Event Log. All events (from the set of events tracked in Parallels Business Automation - Standard) happened. Here you can view the events listing, look at a particular event details, know out a subscription an event is connected with, and, since the Parallels Business Automation - Standard allows attaching different actions to each event replay an action that already was performed when an event have happened. The list of logged events displays the following: ID. Event type numerical identifier assigned automatically in Parallels Business Automation - Standard. Object. The type and unique ID of an object involved in the event. Event type. The event name, which shortly describes the event point. Note: You can narrow the list of events down to specific event type or object type events or those having a particular status using the filter option. You can also search the event by its unique object ID. Completed. This is the date of the event completion. Status. The status of the event (processing or completed). Actions. The list of all actions that can be attached to events.
- 261. Managing Payables in Reseller Control Center 261 Events. The list of events tracked by Parallels Business Automation - Standard with the ability of attaching actions to these events. Instant Messaging. Here you can configure such actions as SMS notifications to be attached to different events. You can configure the instant messaging plug-in and specify mobile phone numbers to send notifications. Notification Settings. Here you can enable or disable sending financial notifications to your customers. For the fresh Parallels Business Automation - Standard installation, you have the list of Events with default Action (and e-mail notification) assigned to each Event. You can customize default Actions or add new ones. SMS notifications can be configured separately in order to send SMS messages to HSPc and their staff members mobile phones. Selecting Different Events for Different Types of Objects In addition, it is possible to set a specific action for a particular object type involved in an event. For example, in respect to events that happen with subscriptions (e.g., a subscription period has ended, or a subscription was created), you can set a special action for each type of subscription (dedicated, Plesk, Virtuozzo Container, etc.) as well as for a subscriptions in general, without respect to a subscription type. Setting Conditions for Events Execution You can also limit an action execution by certain conditions, which can be configured by clicking the Edit Conditions button on an action view screen accessed via Configuration Director - Event Manager - Actions - Action name. In this case, the action set for a subscription in general will be performed in all cases satisfying the condition set (if any) and actions attached to a specific types of subscription will be performed only if such is defined. For example, you can set an e-mail notification for a subscription-related event in general, a script execution or an action for each particular type of subscription or an action execution on a subscription conditioned by a certain due period. Note 1: Mind that the conditions set for an action will jointly limit this action execution. To apply several conditions one by one to an action, you need to create more similar actions and limit each of them by the appropriate condition. Note 2: When setting conditions for events that involve traffic and disk space usage limitations, for example, “64 The disk space is nearly used up” or “65 The traffic is nearly used up”, the values of traffic or disk space used is ALWAYS SET IN KB. Notifications and scripts can be configured using Configuration Director - Event Manager - Events. Here you can also look at the list of events being tracked. Note that you can repeat any action connected with a particular event. To this effect open the event details (click on an event name) and repeat one or all of the actions. You can also allow customers to disable or enable e-mail notifications for particular events. To this effect, go to the Configuration Director - Event Manager - Events, select an event and edit event settings. To view the events history, go to the Configuration Director - Event Manager - Event Log.
- 262. 262 Managing Payables in Reseller Control Center Note: The number of Events to be stored in the Event Log may be set in Configuration Director - Miscellaneous Settings - Data Retention. Service Logging In to Resellers and Customers Tools If needed, you can log in to the Reseller Control Center or Control Panel on behalf of your customers directly from the Provider Control Center without the need to open your browser and enter login /password. The most general way to log in to any of resellers/customers tools, is opening the customer or reseller account details (in the Account Director - Customer Manager or Reseller Manager) and click the Login to CP or Login to RCC button respectively. The logging button is also available both at Container - General Settings and Domain properties - General Settings screens. Using the Maintenance Mode for your Hardware Nodes If you need to take a certain hardware node offline for maintenance or upgrade you can bring a Hardware Node into a special maintenance mode that temporarily disables management of Containers or Plesk domains hosted on this Hardware node from the Control Panel. To bring a node into the maintenance mode, go to the Service Director - Plesk Manager - Nodes or Virtuozzo Manager - Nodes. Select a Hardware Node and edit its general settings. Note that you can compose a Mass Mailer (on page 259) for customers on that specific Hardware Node. Managing the User Password Strength You can set up the length and other strengthening features for passwords used to log in to Parallels Business Automation - Standard Control Centers and Control Panels. The password enhancement also sets the rules for Container users passwords. The idea is simple: try to prevent users from choosing passwords that could be guessed by “Crack” by filtering them out. To set the passwords strength, go to the Configuration Director - Security Manager - Setup. Updating Parallels Business Automation - Standard The Up2date Manager is a useful and simple tool that allows you to check whether your Parallels Business Automation - Standard version is up-to-date and receive information about the available Parallels Business Automation - Standard updates and hotfixes.
- 263. Managing Payables in Reseller Control Center 263 The Up2date Manager examines the Parallels Business Automation - Standard version at your side and connects to the Parallels Business Automation - Standard update server. If there are any updates available for the Parallels Business Automation - Standard version you are currently using, you will immediately get the information about the latest updates. Keeping your Parallels Business Automation - Standard version up- to-date helps you to increase the system stability and performance. Having been switched on, the Up2date Manager once a week automatically connects to the Parallels Business Automation - Standard update server and collects information about available updates and presents this information to you. However, If needed, you can run this check manually at any time. In addition, the Up2date Manager provides two more options: Available plug-ins. The list of all plug-ins available with the currently installed Parallels Business Automation - Standard version. Service Monitor (on page 265). Monitor the status of services critical for Parallels Business Automation - Standard functionality. To view the available Parallels Business Automation - Standard updates: 1 Open the Configuration Director submenu on the Navigation tree and select the Up2Date Manager. The Up2date Manager dashboard appears on the screen. In the right part of the Up2date Manager dashboard you can see the list Parallels Business Automation - Standard updates available for the Parallels Business Automation - Standard version you are using, the last check date, and whether the automated up-to-date check is enabled or not. And in the left part of the Up2date Manager dashboard there are shortcuts used to switch on or off the automated updates check and to check for updates manually. The Up2date Manager dashboard displays the following: Up2date Manager Up2date status Whether you use the Check Now Click on this link latest Parallels to check for Business Automation - available updates Standard version or immediately. You updates are available. can do this without respect to Up2date Checker status. Click on this link Disable (or to turn on or turn Enable ) - off the automated Depending on weekly upgrades the current check. Up2date Checker Status
- 264. 264 Managing Payables in Reseller Control Center Available version The latest Parallels Business Automation - Standard version available at the update server. Installed version The currently installed Parallels Business Automation - Standard version. Date of Last Check The date when updates were checked last time. Up2date Checker Whether the Status automated updates check is performed (Enabled) or not (Disabled). Available Plug-ins Ready for install. The total number of plug-ins Plug-ins. The link available. to the list of plug- ins available. Ready for upgrade. How many plug-ins can be upgraded. In other words, for how many plug-ins updates are available. Service Monitor Running How many of vital services are Services. The link running to the list of services Stopped How many of vital services are History. The link stopped to the vital services check history. In this section: Monitoring the Vital Services Status .................................................................. 265
- 265. Managing Payables in Reseller Control Center 265 Monitoring the Vital Services Status Parallels Business Automation - Standard allows tracking in a real time the status of all the services that are critical for Parallels Business Automation - Standard viability: Web server MySQL servers DNS server Parallels Business Automation - Standard Task Manager Virtuozzo Collector All these services must be up and running for Parallels Business Automation - Standard to work (support database, process orders, etc.). The service monitor controls the status of these services and if one of them stops, tries to immediately start them automatically. If the Service Monitor fails to start one of these services, it issues the system warning visible at any screen of Parallels Business Automation - Standard Control Center, so that the Control Center administrator could know about the outage and fix it. To view the status of Parallels Business Automation - Standard vital services: 1 Open the Configuration Director submenu and select the Up2date Manager. 2 Click Service Monitor on the Up2date Manager submenu. The list of services with their statuses appears on the screen. 3 Click the Check Now button to perform the check and refresh the screen.
- 266. 266 Managing Payables in Reseller Control Center Checking Parallels Business Automation - Standard Database Integrity The Parallels Business Automation - Standard Integrity Checker allows checking the Parallels Business Automation - Standard database integrity. For example, possible inconsistencies in HSP balance calculation, accounts profile, subscriptions details (e.g., possible accidental mismatches in hosting plans assignment, subscriptions ownership, payables issuer data, etc). The main benefit of integrity checks is the opportunity of early tracking and fixing the data mismatches before they take effect. Thus, the Integrity Checker does not globally check the Parallels Business Automation - Standard database, but prevents some potential but possible data mismatches and bugs investigated during the years of Parallels Business Automation - Standard development. The Integrity Checker includes two pre-defined sets of checks: Basic Check checks for the critical data mismatches. The check takes from 1 sec. to 1 min. Extended Check checks for both critical and non-critical data mismatches. Check takes from 1 to 15 min. Both checks are scheduled for execution in Parallels Business Automation - Standard Task Manager and also can be ran manually at any moment. By default, the automated checks execution is: Once a day for the Basic Check Once a week for Extended Check. You can view and edit the checks schedule in the Tasks Queue (on page 268). Note: Since integrity checks are executed regularly and automatically, we recommend you to regularly view the Integrity Checker reports to be aware of check results and not to miss any errors detected. To run the integrity checks manually: 1 Click Support on the left menu. 2 Select the Integrity Checker tab. 3 To run the Basic Check, click the Run Check button. To run the Extended Check, click the Run Extended Check button. The list of existing check reports (if any) shown on the Integrity Checker screen displays the following: ID. The check report numerical identifier assigned automatically in Parallels Business Automation - Standard. Report Date. The date and time the check was performed and report generated.
- 267. Managing Payables in Reseller Control Center 267 Status. The check general result: - The check has been finished without warnings and errors. Please note that the OK check result guarantees the database integrity only in respect to the Parallels Business Automation - Standard known issues that were taken into account during checks coding. Thus, the OK status is a good thing, but does not guarantee that everything is absolutely consistent. More checks - more guarantees. - The check has produced warnings. Warnings mean that something is wrong but not so critical. It can be a malicious alarm as well. You can contact support and pass them the check result or just ignore warnings. - The check has found at least one error. Some critical data inconsistencies were found. This does not mean that these errors will result in serious problems immediately, but sooner or later this can happen. Thus, if errors were found, we recommend you to contact support and pass them the check results as soon as possible. Errors. The number of warnings produced during checking. Warnings. The number of warnings produced during checking. Check Method. The type of check performed (Normal Check - the Basic Check has been run, Extended Check - the Extended Check has been run). Elapsed Time. The time a check execution has taken. To view the Integrity Checker report, click on the report ID or date. The report details display the same information as shown in the reports list (the number or warnings/errors, if any, the check date and time taken, check method) and in the Report field the listing of checks performed with their results is shown. The Integrity Checker error reports can look not very clear for a person who do not have programming skills. This „raw‟ format was introduced intentionally, because reports are mostly addressed to the Parallels Business Automation - Standard technical staff. Thus, if you are not sure what does the Checker report mean, please contact support and send this report to them and they will explain the problem to you and try to solve it as soon as possible. Setting the Statistics Storage Period You can set how long both the resources usage statistics and events history will be stored in the Parallels Business Automation - Standard database in the Configuration Director - Miscellaneous Settings - Data Retention. The resource usage statistics retention cycle defines the timeframe for resource usage reports you can view. The outdated statistics is removed automatically, once a day. In addition, at any moment you can manually remove the outdated statistics (use the Tasks tab on the Data Retention screen). In respect to the resource usage statistics (on page 65), you can set: For how many last days to store the hourly statistics. For how many last months to store the daily statistics. For how many last years to store the monthly statistics.
- 268. 268 Managing Payables in Reseller Control Center For how many last years to store the yearly statistics. In respect to the action log, events history, and sent e-mail notifications you can set the period to store the data. Tasks Management All tasks performed or scheduled in Parallels Business Automation - Standard are collected under the Action Log - Tasks Queue tab. Click the Action Log item on the namespace tree to view tasks. Note: You can set the tasks retention cycle in Configuration Director - Miscellaneous settings - Data Retention. The tasks list displays the following: ID. The task numerical identifier assigned automatically in Parallels Business Automation - Standard. Description. A task name or short description. Status. A task current status (refresh the screen to see the actual data): Error - a task was terminated with error. You can click on a task ID to get its details and follow the link to the corresponding record in the Action Log or to a problem report. Pending - a task is scheduled for execution. There are several reasons for pending status: Temporal lack of resources required for task execution. A task depends on some other task(s) that are not finished yet. In this case, you can view the tasks that block a task execution on a task details screen. A task is periodical and its execution time has not come yet. Success - a task was executed successfully. Timeout - a task execution time (timeout) is over and a task was terminated. In progress - a task is being executed at the moment. Periodic. Shows whether a task is executed many times, with a particular period, or this is a single task. Green tick in this column means that a task is periodic, red cross means that a task is single. Scheduled. The date and time when a task must be executed. You can view a task details by clicking on its ID. Some settings of pending tasks can be adjusted. And tasks in any other status cannot be changed. Task details include the following: ID, Status, and Description (the same as in the tasks list). Code. The code to be executed in the frame of a task. Priority (for non periodical tasks). Period. The execution period in seconds for periodical tasks only. You can modify the execution period for periodic tasks.
- 269. Managing Payables in Reseller Control Center 269 Scheduled. The date and time a task must be executed. You can adjust the execution time for pending tasks. To start a task immediately, click the Now button next to the execution time fields to set the date/time to the current moment and click the Update button. Viewing Log Files During the normal course of work, it is often necessary to track all the actions performed within your Parallels Business Automation - Standard system. To view action logs, click Action Log on the left menu. The Parallels Business Automation - Standard logs are stored on the Management Node in the /var/log/hspc/hspc.log file. You can set the log level and log messages format in the Configuration Director - Logging and Errors - Log Settings. In this section: Log Level Settings ............................................................................................. 270
- 270. 270 Managing Payables in Reseller Control Center Log Level Settings There are several possible logging levels that you can choose to be collected in the /var/log/hspc/hspc.log file.on the Management Node. The „lowest‟ logging level, collects only messages about serious system problems, whereas the „highest‟ level collects all logging related messages. When you specify a particular logging level, the messages for that level and all the levels below it are collected. To set the log level: 1 Click the Edit button on the Log Settings screen. 2 Select the logging level from the Log Level drop-down menu: DEBUG - the lowest logging rank and is intended to turn on all logging. INFO - informational messages that highlight the progress of the application at coarse-grained level. WARN - messages about potentially harmful situations. ERROR - error events that might still allow the application to continue running. FATAL - very severe error events that will presumably lead the application to abort. 3 You can adjust the log messages format. To this effect, enter the format pattern (http://search.cpan.org/~mschilli/Log-Log4perl- 1.04/lib/Log/Log4perl/Layout/PatternLayout.pm) into the Log Pattern field. Note: The %X{key} placeholder can be used in pattern only one time. If you are not sure about a new log pattern, then leave the default: [%d] [%p] [%P] [%M] %m %X{last_report}%n
- 271. CHAPTER 20 Marketing and Affiliate Programs This chapter describes how you can add new affiliate programs and assess the efficiency of adverts placed at your partners‟ websites and linked to your HSPstore. In this chapter: Configuring your Store to Collect Referrals Statistics ........................................ 272 Managing Marketing Campaigns ....................................................................... 272 Managing Affiliate Programs.............................................................................. 273 Customizing the Parallels Business Automation - Standard Tools Appearance . 275
- 272. 272 Managing Payables in Reseller Control Center Configuring your Store to Collect Referrals Statistics Referrals allow you to collect useful information about the efficiency of your advertising media. Thus, you can place at your HSPstore a question like “How did you know about us?” and enlist your advertising media (TV, Internet, etc.). The question will be displayed at the Place Order page at the HSPstore. Thus, as your customers will provide responses, you can collect useful statistics. To add the referral question and the list of referrals, go to the Commerce Director - Store Manager - Configure Store and select the Referrals tab. Similarly to referrals, this allows you to collect the detailed information regarding efficiency of your web adverts. However, Parallels Business Automation - Standard provides the specialized marketing tools (on page 272). Managing Marketing Campaigns Marketing Director in Parallels Business Automation - Standard allows creating online marketing campaigns that result in visits to your site/store. Parallels Business Automation - Standard will track the hits as well as orders received as a result of your different campaigns. Marketing campaigns owners must have customer accounts in Parallels Business Automation - Standard. Customer accounts for partners that sign up online are created automatically. And if you are adding a marketing campaign online, you should create a customer account for a new partner manually, before you start adding a new campaign. The Redirector URL (the linking code) that should be placed at partner‟s website to redirect customers to your store will be generated automatically. To generate the URL, go to the Marketing Director - Campaign Manager - Campaigns and add a new campaign. After you have saved a new campaign, open its details and get the Redirector URL. To add a marketing campaign: 1 Click Campaigns on the Campaign Manager submenu. 2 Click the New Campaign button. 3 Fill the form that appears: a Type the campaign name (which will be later used for your reference) into the Title field. b Type the ID and name customer account that will belong to a new partner into the Owner fields. Or click the Select button next to this field and select one of accounts from the list that appears in the popup window. c You can attach a promotion to a campaign so customers that came from a partner website will automatically get a promotion applied to their subscriptions. To this effect, you must have one or more promotions created. To attach a promotion, click the Select button next to the Promotion field and select a promotion to be attached from the list that appears in the popup window. d Enter your store URL into the Redirect To field.
- 273. Managing Payables in Reseller Control Center 273 4 Click the Save button. The list of campaigns with a new campaign added appears on the screen. 5 Now, you should get the linking code to be passed to your partner. To this effect: a Click on a newly created campaign title to drill to its details. b Copy the URL shown in the Redirector URL field - this is the unique linking code generated specially for this partner. From the list of Campaigns, you can view only the number of hits (redirects to your HSPstore from partner website). Customers that visit your HSPstore via partner‟s website are identified by cookies. Thus, if a customer was once redirected to your Web site, his (or her) browser receives appropriate cookie and Parallels Business Automation - Standard counts one hit. By default, this cookie should be stored half a year. If a customer uses the same browser, and visits your HSPstore once again, he (or she) is recognized by a cookie, and a hit is not counted. A customer can just visit your HSPstore or can visit it and place an Order. Parallels Business Automation - Standard provides statistics on buy-hits and total amount of orders placed for each campaign. To view Orders statistics, click the Report item on Campaign Manager submenu. It is also possible to view the dated report for particular campaign. In addition, the set of pre-defined website templates available includes the template for automated affiliates signing up (on page 273). Managing Affiliate Programs Affiliate programs are the ideal way to make your website more profitable. Your website visitors can register as your affiliate online, obtain the linking code (URL that redirects to your online store) to be placed to their websites and start generating sales for you. In this case, a new Marketing Campaign (on page 272) is added automatically, and you can count hits and orders placed by your affiliates websites visitors. Your affiliate program participants will also automatically get the customer accounts with access to the Parallels Business Automation - Standard Control Panel. The Parallels Business Automation - Standard Messenger is pre-configured to send the notification about new marketing campaign both to your account administrator e-mail and to your affiliates (with the affiliate linking code and URL to the Parallels Business Automation - Standard Control Panel). The PHP store (on page 100) spipped with Parallels Business Automation - Standard provides the pre-defined website page template for the automated affiliates sign-up page. By default, this page is hidden. To show it at your website, you need to edit the site header file. In a few words, to set up the afiliates signup page for your website: 1 Configure the Affiliates page: Open the /var/opt/hspc- frontend/affiliates.php file and add a campaign title, campaign info, and a feedback text. 2 Show the Affiliates page at your website: Edit the /var/opt/hspc- frontend/templates/header.inc file.
- 274. 274 Managing Payables in Reseller Control Center Now, each step in details. To configure the Affiliates page: 1 On your Management Node, open the /var/opt/hspc- frontend/affiliates.php file. Edit the config section of the file, replace the %text% with an actual content. 2 $campaign_title - The title that will be displayed at the top of the Affiliates page. In addition, this title will be used to name all the marketing campaigns created online under the Marketing Director > Marketing Manager > Campaigns. This title is like a tag for you to understand that a campaign has been created online. Later you can change campaign titles. 3 $campaign_info - Additional information about affiliates signup conditions, for example the conditions of affiliate partnership like Pay-Per-Sale, Payout Amount, Additional Payout Amount, Initial Desposit, Payout Threshold, Payout Duration. 4 $campaign_redirect_to - By default, this variable is assigned the expression used for a linking code generation, and your Management node URL is used as a basis for a linking code. If your store is at your Management Node, leave the default value. If your store is installed at a separate server, then explicitly specify your store URL as this variable value. 5 $campaign_feedback_text - the message that will be displayed at the store page after an affiliate fills the Affiliate application form and submits it (for example, acknowledgement). To show the Affiliates page at your website: 1 On your Management Node, open the the /var/opt/hspc- frontend/templates/header.inc file. 2 Edit the Top menu section. If the Affiliates reference is commented, then discomment it, if the Affiliates link is absent, add it: <a href=”./affiliates.php” class=”top_menu_items”>Affiliates</a>
- 275. Managing Payables in Reseller Control Center 275 Customizing the Parallels Business Automation - Standard Tools Appearance A skin defines the appearance of the Parallels Business Automation - Standard tools. A skin is a combination of palette and images. Skins Customization allows you to change interface palette, so that you can set any combination of colors you like for the most of interface elements. To facilitate creation of new skins, we provide the default base skins which serve as the parent ones for any of the new skins you create: Classic. Several variations of the default palette designed specially for Parallels Business Automation - Standard. WinXP. Several variations of the Windows XP style palette and images. The default skins are read-only, you can only use them as the parent ones for the new skins, but it is not possible to customize these default skins. When you create new skins, you always select the parent one: this can be either one of the default skins or one of the newly created ones. As for the custom skins you create, you can allow or disallow using these skins as the parent ones (by checking or unchecking the Allow inheritance box in the skin properties). To allow applying a custom skin to the Parallels Business Automation - Standard tools, please make it active (check the Active box in the skin properties) All the skins created from the Provider Control Center (i.e., owned by Provider) are reachable but read-only for Resellers. The “Active” provider‟s skins can be applied. If a Reseller wants to customize and apply a skin owned by Provider, this can be done: Only for the “Allow inheritance” Provider‟s skins, without respect to whether a skin is active or not. By creating the own new skin on the basis of this skin, activating and applying it. A skin is part of a user personal settings. This means that when you apply a skin, this setting will be saved in the Parallels Business Automation - Standard database and the skin selected will be applied each time the same login/password is used to log in to the Control Center. To create or apply a skin, go to the Marketing Director - Brand Manager - Skins.
- 276. CHAPTER 21 XML-Based Data Import and Export Import-Export Manager allows importing and exporting data to/from Parallels Business Automation - Standard database as XML files. The following data can be exported: Accounts Documents Subscriptions Hosting plans The following data can be imported: Accounts Subscriptions Financial documents Hosting plans Traffic classes Traffic statistics. Note:The structure of XML files is described in details in Parallels Business Automation - Standard SDK, which is available in PDF format from the Support - Documentation page of the Control Center. To import or export the data, please go to the Migration Director - Import-Export Manager. The Import-Export Manager either generates the XML file describing the objects you want to export or accepts the XML file describing objects you want to import and creates the corresponding objects in Parallels Business Automation - Standard.
- 277. CHAPTER 22 Resolving Data Conflicts The Parallels Business Automation - Standard provides special tools for fixing the data synchronization problems between the Parallels Business Automation - Standard database and both Virtuozzo and Plesk nodes. How conflicts occur? Conflicts can occur in two cases: 1 New node registration. You are registering a Hardware Node that carries the information that is either absent or differs from the data in the Parallels Business Automation - Standard database. Strictly speaking, in this case the situation (a conflict) is just the Parallels Business Automation - Standard offer to import Virtuozzo Containers or Plesk domains found on a node being registered. When you register a Virtuozzo or Plesk server, Parallels Business Automation - Standard fetches the configuration of a node itself and Containers or Plesk domains/clients existing on a node. And you can assign Containers or Plesk domains to an Parallels Business Automation - Standard account, select one of Parallels Business Automation - Standard Hosting plans, and create subscriptions, so that Container or Plesk domain could be managed and billed by Parallels Business Automation - Standard tools. Note: Registration conflicts do not affect a Hardware Node availability. And such conflicts can occur only if you are registering a node that runs Virtuozzo or Plesk and already hosts Virtuozzo Containers or Plesk clients/domains. In general, you can establish connection with a node and start creating Virtuozzo Containers or Plesk domains right after the registration is finished. And conflicting Containers or Plesk domains can be imported later. Servers that run some third-party software can be just registered and offered as a simple dedicated subscription for automated billing, in this case Parallels Business Automation - Standard does not concerned in the data a node carries, so there are no registration conflicts occur with third-party servers. 2 Data mismatch with a registered node. The information in the Parallels Business Automation - Standard database and on a Hardware Node has became different. For example, a Plesk domain or a Container was deleted on a hosting node and Parallels Business Automation - Standard database on a Management Node still contains the record about this subscription. Or conversely: a subscription exists on a node, but there are no records about it in the database on the Management Node. The data on a Hardware Node and a Management Node is being periodically checked. If data mismatch takes place, a conflict occurs, and you can see it in a Hardware Node properties (for Container conflicts) or in a Plesk client/domain properties. You can resolve a conflict by recreating either Container or Plesk domain/client or deleting it. To resolve the Container conflicts, go to the Service Director - Virtuozzo Manager - Nodes.
- 278. 278 Managing Payables in Reseller Control Center To resolve the Plesk domains or clients conflicts, go to the Service Director - Plesk Manager - Plesk Domains or - Plesk Clients respectively. In this chapter: Resolving Container Subscriptions Registration Conflicts.................................. 279 Synchronizing the Plesk Subscription on a Node and in Parallels Business Automation - Standard Data
- 279. CHAPTER 23 Resolving Container Subscriptions Registration Conflicts The Parallels Business Automation - Standard Infrastructure Manager includes the special tool for fixing synchronization problems between the Management Node and Hardware Nodes - Conflicts Resolver. When you register the Virtuozzo Hardware Node that already hosts Containers, it may occur that the information about Containers hosted on this Hardware Node either is absent in Parallels Business Automation - Standard database or does not correspond to the data containing in the database. For example, a Container IP address is already used by another Container hosted on a Hardware Node or a Container was actually deleted on a Hardware Node, but information about it is still stored in the database. And this is the reason why a Container cannot be correctly moved into Parallels Business Automation - Standard. After you resolve a conflict, you can assign a Container to one of the customer accounts, select a hosting plan, and create a subscription, so that a Container can be billed using the Parallels Business Automation - Standard hosting automation solution. To view the list of conflicts, go to the Service Director - Virtuozzo Manager - Nodes, select a node and then click the Conflicts tab.
- 280. CHAPTER 24 Synchronizing the Plesk Subscription on a Node and in Parallels Business Automation - Standard Database There are two types of Plesk-related conflicts: A Plesk client or domain exists on a Hardware Node being registered, but there is no information about it in the Parallels Business Automation - Standard database. A Plesk client or domain is still registered in the Parallels Business Automation - Standard database, but it was actually deleted from a Hardware Node. This can happen in case a Hardware Node was registered if (for example, manually, When you register the Plesk Hardware Node that already hosts Plesk clients/domains, it may occur that the information about Plesk clients/domains hosted on this Hardware Node either is absent in Parallels Business Automation - Standard database or does not correspond to the data containing in the database. You can resolve such a conflict by registering Secondly, Plesk conflicts can occur with already registered node, if a subscription is recorded in the Parallels Business Automation - Standard database, but is actually deleted on a node, or conversely. You can resolve such a conflict either by re-creating a Plesk domain/client or deleting it. Note: To register a Plesk domain or a client in Parallels Business Automation - Standard, it is necessary that this Plesk domain/client must be in the Active state on the corresponding node. Otherwise, the Parallels Business Automation - Standard will be unable to fetch the Plesk domain configuration, and you will see the system message telling that Parallels Business Automation - Standard is not able to read the domain configuration. In this case, please check the Plesk domain status, activate it if needed, and then try to import it again. To resolve the Plesk domains or clients conflicts, go to the Migration Director Conflicts Resolver - Plesk Domains or - Plesk Clients respectively.
- 281. CHAPTER 25 Integration and Customization Opportunities Two customization-related guides are shipped with Parallels Business Automation - Standard: SDK. API and screens customization. Templates Creation Guide. Making custom applications available for installation inside Virtuozzo Containers, i.e., how to create application templates). In this chapter: Parallels Business Automation - Standard API and Customization ................... 282 Application Templates Creation ........................................................................ 282
- 282. 282 Managing Payables in Reseller Control Center Parallels Business Automation - Standard API and Customization The Parallels Business Automation - Standard SDK helps you to: Customize the Parallels Business Automation - Standard in accordance with your needs. Integrate the Parallels Business Automation - Standard into your existing corporate and services infrastructure. Re-brand the existing services infrastructure. The API provided allows you to: Create accounts, access permissions. Get information about hosting plans and promotions. Create orders, add credit cards, process payments. Create custom e-commerce solutions. You can customize any of Parallels Business Automation - Standard screens in a way that suits your needs: Editing the context help for any of the Parallels Business Automation - Standard screens. Editing the on-screen help bars for the Control Panels your customers use. Adding custom menu items in the Control Panels. Template-based customization of screens involved in the purchasing wizard at your online store. Screen ID based customization of any of the Parallels Business Automation - Standard screens. Application Templates Creation The Parallels Business Automation - Standard Templates Creation Guide outlines the principles of applications provisioning for Virtuozzo Containers and describes the procedure of conversion of an original application packages into the Parallels Business Automation - Standard-compatible packages.
- 283. CHAPTER 26 Parallels Business Automation - Standard Internal Licensing In Parallels Business Automation - Standard, a License is a file that contains specific data. For Parallels Business Automation - Standard tools to work the Parallels Business Automation - Standard license file is needed on the Management Node. This license can be easily installed via the Parallels Business Automation - Standard Provider Control Center web-based interface. Note: The trial Parallels Business Automation - Standard licence is shipped together with the Parallels Business Automation - Standard distribution. And to provide hosting services, the licenses that are specific for each hosting type (Virtuozzo, Plesk) should be installed on appropriate Hardware Nodes. In this chapter: Installing License Certificates ............................................................................ 283 Installing License Certificates The Parallels Business Automation - Standard distribution includes the trial Parallels Business Automation - Standard License Certificate. The trial License has the limited validity period, but it allows making the initial configuration of the Parallels Business Automation - Standard. The trial License is located at the Parallels Business Automation - Standard distribution CD 1 in the /hspc directory (the hspclicense file). You can install the permanent Parallels Business Automation - Standard license using the Configuration Director - License Manager. And to provide hosting services, the licenses that are specific for each hosting type (Virtuozzo, Plesk) should be installed on appropriate Hardware Nodes.
- 284. CHAPTER 27 Getting Technical Support Parallels provides installation assistance for Parallels Business Automation - Standard. Assistance with installation is offered via e-mail. The full information about Parallels Business Automation - Standard support and Parallels Business Automation - Standard documentation in HTML format is available at our website (http://www.parallels.com/en/products/hspcomplete/docs/). In this chapter: An Overview of Parallels Technical Support ...................................................... 285 Questions for Technical Support ....................................................................... 285 How to Send Support Questions ....................................................................... 285
- 285. Managing Payables in Reseller Control Center 285 An Overview of Parallels Technical Support Parallels Support will attempt to answer any relevant questions you may have before the installation process is initiated. This includes the following: Pre-requisites list; Hardware compatibility; Software compatibility. Questions for Technical Support In most cases, support team must rely on customer observations and communications with the customer in order to diagnose and solve the problem. Therefore, the detailed problem report is extremely important. Please, do mention the following: Symptoms of the problem; When the problem began including the circumstances of the failure; Any changes you made to your system; Other information that may be relevant to your situation, such as the installation method; Specific hardware devices that may be relevant to your problem. How to Send Support Questions Please, send your questions to support team by e-mail: hsvz- support@parallels.com. If you need to contact us - just call us or visit one of our offices. Information about phone numbers, contact persons and office addresses is available on the contact page at http://www.parallels.com/en/contact/.